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The Mothers of Some 
Distinguished Georgians 

Of the Last Half of the Century 



■-K. 



COMPILED BY 



SARAH HARRIET BUTTS 



#^ 



^ 



"These do not wear 

Trappings of state, nor gird upon their side 
Resistless steel, nor any symbol bear 

To show they wrought a nation's life and pride. 

These do not crave 

Fame's voice, for their high task is far above 
Her wavering tone, soon muffled by the grave : 

These, in the royal consciousness of love, 

Ask but to gaze 

On their great work, and, seeing it is good. 
Put graciously aside all meed of praise, 

Content in God's best gift — pure motherhood." 



PRESS OF 

J. J. LITTLE & CO 

NEW YORK 



coNancss, 

Two Cowte REOsnrcs' 

pre. 22 f9o? 

DLAM a XXai No. 

oorv B. 



Copyright, 1902, bv 
SARAH HARRIET BUTTS 



TO THE MOTHERS OF GEORGIA 

For you these wreaths of laurel — not the rue, 

Borne with lament and tears to churchyard bowers, 

Where there is naught to wail, nor to bestiew 
With sad memorial herb or fading flowers. 

Since you are not the perished from the earth, 

Though each no more in her old sphere doth move, 

To grace the cot or mansion of her birth 
Noble alike in toil and truth and lovej 

Yet you are mothers to a race of men 

In whom you live and move in the great Statej 

Speak in her councils, wield the sword, and pen, 
And at Heaven's altars faithful serve and wait. 

Louise Palmer Smith. 




DEDICATION 

TN MEMORY of two mothers who were the inspiration 
-* of this Mother-book, it is lovingly dedicated: 

To mine, who in the flush and glory^of young womanhood, 
with Christian faith and joy, passed into her Father's House. 

To his, who through more than the allotted span of life and 
changing fortunes, bore the heat and burden of her days with 
dignity and faithfulness, and her crown of years with grace and 
gentleness until she fell asleep, — her beneficent influence resting 
like a benediction upon all who knew her. 

S. H. B. 



MOTHER-LOrE 



^ h 



There is a love that asks for no returning — 
That sheds its radiance on life's darkest waysj 

A soft and steadfast fire forever burning, 

To guide Man's footsteps through his length of days. 

When friendship fails, and other love is dying, 
To this devotion how the tired heart clings ! 

On Mother-love his steadfast hope relying, 

To Mother-love Man's noblest, best, he brings. 

Frances du Bignon. 



Preface 



It is with great reluctance that I send out "The Mothers of Distin- 
guished Georgians." No one can be more fully aware of its incomplete- 
ness than myself. My hope is, that an intelligent public will grant it that 
gracious charity which the subject merits. 

There is no pretense of any fine writing in these tributes to Mothers. 
They have not been "edited," and scarcely a word or expression has been 
changed from the original MSS., and their charm of variety and natural- 
ness will appeal to all. 

That I have had great difficulty in making this collection, it is useless 
to assert. From the first I resolved not to intrude upon the privacy of a 
family without the permission of its ostensible head, and I regret to say, 
in a few instances I failed to interest this particular member, and refrained 
from further effort. 

In other cases, a few to whom I applied made no response after more 
than one appeal; others, so desirable, would promise time after time, 
I am sure with good intent, and still the sketches would fail to arrive. 

I judge that many would have contributed had they understood 
fully the spirit of the book, and it is with immeasurable regret I close the 
volume without these illustrious names adding their lustre to its pages. 

To that greater number who have, with unfailing kindness, aided 
me in my efforts; who have with such courtesy and consideration rested 
a time from their pressing public duties to have these sketches prepared; 
in some notable instances, the illustrious sons with their own hands writ- 
ing the tributes, I can only express my sincere thanks and appreciation. 

I like to say that it is to the young — the children — I hope these Mothers 
will appeal, and to that end the more enduring binding has been selected, 
rather than one fancy or fashion might have dictated. 

In conclusion, the Mothers are before you in a book, and as it has been 

the incidental cause of many a mother lost to sight and almost to memory 

being brought forth to light and influence, view them with that kindly 

and reverential interest which has inspired 

The Compiler. 

Brunswick, Georgia, Nov. i, 1902. 



Contents 



Malinda Cox Gordon 

Anxe Eliza Gartrell Grady . 

Sarah Williamson Bird Lamar 

Loretto Rebecca Lamar Chappell 

JL\RY Anderson Lanier 

Louisa Maria Northen 

Julia Knox Hull Wheeler 

Elizabeth Ware Long 

Esther Habersham Elliott 

Charlotte Bull Barnwell Elliott 

Margaret M. Calhoun 

Janet McRae Brantley . 

Ann McIntosh Ward 

Ann Quarterman LeConte 

Ann LeConte Stevens , 

Caroline Ann Smith 

Ann Holbrook Goulding . 

Frances Lloyd Bartow 

Carolina Wyatt Starke Coleman 

Laura Robinson Rootes Cobb . 

Martha Jacqueline Rootes Jackson 

Sarah Battaille Cobb Rutherford 

Mildred Lewis Rootes Cobb 

Phcebe Adgate Lipscomb . 

Mildred Lewis Cobb Jackson 

Martha Cobb Grant 

Malinda Lewis White Benning 

Sarah Eliza Pope Barrow 

Ann V. Du Bignon 

Margaret Grier Stephens 

Matilda Lindsay Stephens 

Jane Warner . 

Margaret Stanley Beckwith 

Mrs. Charles Howard 

Annulet Ball Andrews . 

Catherine Winn Fleming 

Mary Louisa Bacon 



PAGE 

I 
3 
5 
7 
9 
n 

13 
IS 
17 
19 
21 

23 

25 

27 
29 
31- 

34 
36 
38 
40 
42 
44 
46 
49 
51 
53 
56 
59 
61 

63 
65 
67 
69 
70 
72 

74 
76 



^he Mothers of 

r 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



Mary Wilson Hill Clements . 

Susan Stearns Calhoun . 

Hannah White Munnerlyn 

Sarah Skrine Howard Evans . 

Catherine Bathsheba Fleming 

Nancy C. Matthews Candler . 

Martha Beall Candler 

Mary Ann Dent Longstreet 

Hannah Randolph Longstreet 

Sarah McClellan Means . 

Catherine Rebecca Parry Stanton 

Hannah Lord King 

Sarah Ann Houstoun Anderson 

Margarette MacPherson Berrien 

Julia Adelaide Erwin Howell 

Catherine Davenport Johnston 

Martha Mosse Lawton 

Anne H. Dunham 

Cynthia Sumner Mell 

LuRENE Howard Cooper Mell . 

Anna Fitch White . 

Clara Corinne Knight 

Rebecca Freeman Hillyer 

Elizabeth Fain Trammell 

Ann Eliza Estill 

Keturah Pringle 

Nancy Lane Colquitt 

Sarah Parham Hill 

Matilda Septima McIntosh 

Elizabeth Griffing Edwards . 

Sally Brown .... 

Elizabeth Brown 

Susannah Tomlinson Fort 

Martha Fannin Fort 

Mary Brent Hoke Smith . 

Mary Anne McDonald Atkinson 

Rhoda Paisley Gaulden . 

Jane Eleanor Martin (Zinn) Foster 

Sara Jane Kirby McClendon . 

Nancy Harris Slaton 

Jamima Briggs Hall 

Margery Spalding Baillie Kell 

Elizabeth Alexander Winship 

Sarah Trulee Park 

Louisa Ropeler Lucas Stovall 

Mattie Wilson Stovall . 

Augusta George Anna Kirkland Black 



PAGE 

78 
81 
82 
84 
85 
87 
89 
90 
92 
93 
95 
96 

98 
99 

lOI 

103 

105 
107 
109 

1X2 
114 
116 
118 
120 
122 
124 
126 
129 

133 

137 
139 
141 

143 
145 
147 
149 

152 

154 
156 
158 

159 
i6i 

163 
164 
166 



Adaline Elizabeth Wright .... 

POLLV BUFORD McFaDDEN GaSTON 

Louisa M. Houghton Edwards .... 

Sarah Joyce Hooper Alexander 

Augusta Dorothea Oelenheinz Wentz 

Elizabeth Caroline Jones- Young 

Caroline Rebecca Harriss .... 

Theodora Phelps Atkinson .... 

Sara Straus ....... 

Frances Isabella Garterey Urquhart Garrard 
Julia McPherson Berrien Whitehead 
Susan Ann Howard Smith . . . 

Catharine Huling Toombs .... 

Sarah Ellis Hardee ..... 

Sarah R. Terrell ..... 



PAGE 

i68 
169 
171 
173 
175 
177 
178 
180 
182 
184 
187 
189 
191 
193 
19s 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



Illustrations 



Anne Eliza Gartrell Grady 

LoRETTO Rebecca Lamar Chappell 

Louisa Maria Northen 

Margaret M. Calhoun 

Caroline Ann Smith 

Carolina Wyatt Starke Coleman 

Sarah Battaille Cobb Rutherford 

Mildred Lewis Cobb Jackson . 

Martha Cobb Grant 

Ann V. du Bignon 

Jane Warner .... 

Annulet Ball Andrews 

Mary Wilson Hill Clements . 

Hannah White Munnerlyn 

Catherine Bathsheba Fleming 

Mary Ann Dent Longstreet 

Catherine Rebecca Parry Stanton 

Sarah Ann Houstoun Anderson 

Julia Adelaide Erwin Howell 

Anne H. Dunham 

Clara Corinne Daniel Knight 

Elizabeth Fain Trammell 

Ann Eliza Estill 

Matilda Septima McIntosh 

Sally Brown .... 

Elizabeth Grisham Brown 

Martha Fannin Fort 

Mary Anne McDonald Atkinson 

Jane Eleanor Martin Foster 

Sara Jane Kirby McClendon . 

Jamima Briggs Hall 

Elizabeth Alexander AVinship 

Mattie Wilson Stovall 

Adaline Elizabeth Wright 

Louisa M. Houghton Edwards 

Augusta Dorothea Oelenheinz Wentz 

Theodora Phelps Atkinson 

Sara Straus .... 

Sarah R. Terrell 



FACING 
PAGE 

2 

6 

10 
20 

30 

38 

44 
50 
52 
60 
66 
72 
78 

82 

86 
90 

94 
98 
100 
106 
116 
1 20 
122 

130 
134 
136 

140 
144 
148 

152 
156 
160 
164 
i68 
170 

'74 
180 
182 
194 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



HXitUnda (JJcrX 05oVtlOU, ^^'^^ mother of John B. Gordon, was the 
daughter of a planter and the wife of a preacher. We shall find few start- 
ling incidents, but much that is inspiring, in her life — a life so lived that all 
who knew her were drawn closer to God and to duty. This short sketch 
is given that those who love and honor her son, the soldier, statesman, and 
orator, may pay just homage to her memory. 

Her father was Ichabod Cox, a man whose strong personality made a 
deep impress upon his community. His plantation was in Talbot County, 
Georgia. Here she was born in the year 1800. Hers was the wholesome 
child life of the old plantation days, when the activity of body and mind 
was balanced, and for every hour spent in learning the housekeeper's art and 
in study, there were hours of out-door sport. She was taught to ride in her 
early childhood, and never lost her enthusiasm for this sport, often riding 
gallantly after the hounds, on the fox and deer hunt, with her husband and 
his friends. 

Her nature was strongly spiritual, and her girlhood was full of rehgious 
enthusiasm, expressed in a practical religious life. She taught in the neigh- 
boring Sunday-school, and was always a leader in charitable work. One 
Sunday morning a young minister — a stranger — filled the pulpit of her 
church. His attention was caught by the beauty of a voice which rose 
above the congregation. It was the voice of the slender young girl 
with the auburn hair who sat near the front. As soon as the service was 
completed he was introduced to her and her father, and was invited to dine 
with them. He accepted the invitation, and this was the beginning of a 
story of love which ended only with death. 

The young minister's name was Zachariah Gordon. She became his 
wife, and was his true helpmeet as he served in Christ's cause, preaching 
in one place after another for seventy years, never accepting a permanent 
call and never accepting pay. He lived to be ninety-one years of age. 

He owned a large plantation in Upson County, and here she spent the 
first years of her married life. Their home was near the border line of the 
Creek Indian settlements, and they lived in constant danger of attacks from 
the Indians. The soldierly spirit of her afterward famous son was often 
stirred in his boyish heart by the muster and drill of the neighboring 
farmers. In order to be ready to protect their homes, they came together 
once or twice a year, with such arms as they possessed, and went through 
the ordinary drill — a brave though ununiformed band, commanded by her 
husband. 

It was at this period of her life that a strange prophecy was made of 
her, which the after years fulfilled. An old minister who was visiting their 
home told them one morning of a vision which had come to him the night 
before. '' I was taken to heaven in my dream, and there. Sister Gordon, I 
saw you and Brother Gordon surrounded by twelve children." " I have but 
two children," she laughingly replied, " so I fear it was not I whom you 

I 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



saw!" When she died she had had twelve children, eleven sons and one 
daughter. She was a careful housekeeper, but domestic cares did not keep 
her when duty called her husband away. She went with him on his cir- 
cuits, often enduring great fatigue, and by her gentleness and goodness she 
illustrated the strength and beauty of the spirit of the Christ her husband 
preached. 

After a few years they moved to North Georgia, and their home was 
on the highway between LaFayette, in Walker County, and Dalton, in 
Whitfield County. Both of these towns were county sites ; and the lawyers 
of the day, travelling back and forth in private conveyance, were all enter- 
tained at her hospitable board. Judge Underwood, who was the most noted 
wit of his day; Hon. William Henry Stiles, who was afterward United States 
Minister to Russia ; Hon. Mark A. Cooper and Judge Augustus R. Wirght 
afterward a member of the Confederate Congress, were among her friends; 
and Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice-President of the Confederacy, when 
conducting his memorable political campaigns, was also a frequent guest 
in her house. 

Thus living in the even tenor of her way, she neared the great sacri- 
fice which her country was to ask of her. 

Wiien the voice of the peacemaker failed, and war was declared between 
North and South, all of the five sons who were living at that time volun- 
teered to go to the front, the youngest being only fifteen years of age. She 
gave them with the agony of a mother, but with the fortitude of a patriot. 
She was living at the time in the mountains of Georgia, near the Tennessee 
River, and here she stayed, praying for her sons and the cause of her country 
until the Northern army appeared on the opposite side of the river. She 
then fled, with what she could hastily gather, to Columbus, Georgia. But 
the terrors of war followed her. She was now advanced in years, but amid 
the destruction and devastation which surrounded her, she was brave and 
calm, and her spirit as undaunted as that of her son, who was then in 
far away Virginia, winning the stars of a general, and earning his title, "the 
Chevalier Bayard of Lee's army." 

She died in 1865, in Columbus, surrounded by her husband, her daugh- 
ter, and the three sons that were left. She met death, as she had met life, 
with the consciousness that " underneath are the everlasting arms." 

As she lay dying, her husband repeated a few lines of a hymn which had 
been a favorite with her: 

" Jesus can make a dying bed 

Feel as soft as downy pillows are, 
While on His breast I lean my head 
And breathe my life out sweetly there." 

And as the last life-light faded from her eyes, she smiled with heavenly 
sweetness and said, " Yes, I am breathing my life out sweetly there." 

2 Caroline Lewis Gordon. 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



%,\\Xit %\\iXi CSartvell CJrady, tlie mother of Henry W. Grady, was 
born in Nacoochee Valley, Georgia, January 23, 183 1. Her maiden name 
was Anne Eliza Gartrell, being connected with many of the oldest and most 
distinguished families of the State, such as the Lamars, Bennings, Cobbs, 
and Gartrells, who were noted alike for learning, statesmanship, brilliancy of 
mind, with highest culture and sterling worth. From such ancestors came 
the wonderful talents with which the late Henry \V. Grady was endowed. 
Mrs. Grady's mother died when she was six years old. Her father took her, 
with her little sister and two brothers, to Clarke County, to his sister, Mrs. 
Anne Gartrell Kennon, who was indeed a mother to the motherless. Mrs. 
Grady has often said all that was good in her was due to this devoted aunt. 
Two older brothers remained with their father. After his second marriage 
the children all returned to his home in Dahlonega. This wife lived only 
a short time; again these children took up their abode with their aunt, who 
had also moved to Dahlonega. Anne Gartrell remained with her aunt until 
she was married (after one month's engagement), at the age of seventeen, 
to William Samons Grady, of North Carolina. She went to Fort Flemtree, 
a trading post in North Carolina, where they lived only a short time, then 
moved to Athens, where Mr. Grady established himself in business. After 
the birth of two sons, Henry W. and William S., Jr., Mr. Grady was seized 
with the gold fever, and with Mrs. Grady's father and brothers Nvent to 
California. Not meeting with the hoped-for success, Mr. Grady returned to 
Athens, where he afterward accumulated a fortune. While in California 
Mrs. Grady's father was drowned, and one of her brothers shipwrecked. 
This was a most trying time for this brave young woman left at home with 
her two boys. Letters were four months in reaching her. Yet she never 
gave up, and after Mr. Grady's return all was bright and beautiful. Five 
other children were born to them, fortune smiled and happiness reigned 
supreme until the dread tocsin of war was sounded. At the first notes 
Mr. Grady responded. He went to his old home in North Carolina, 
raised a company there, was made captain, and joined the Twenty-fifth 
North Carolina Regiment. He was afterward made major, and fought 
gallantly until he fell fighting in one of the battles around Petersburg. 
Major Grady was struck by a shell, wounding him in the breast and 
head, and breaking both arms. Previous to this Mrs. Grady had lost 
two lovely little girls within ten days of each other. The third one lived to 
feel the effect all her life of that dread disease, scarlet fever, contracted 
from a soldier Mrs. Grady had taken in for a night. As soon as tidings 
came of Major Grady being wounded, his devoted wife left her remaining- 
little ones and hastened to his side. As the Federals advanced on Petersburg, 
they had to move the wounded man to Greenville, South Carolina, where, 
after three long months of intense agony, the gallant major died at the age 
of forty-four years, leaving his faithful wife a desolate widow at the age of 
thirty-three years. Major Grady left to his children a considerable fortune, 

3 



r-^if Mothers o/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



and what was far better, a name without spot or blemish, and died as he had 
Hved, a perfect Christian gentleman. Mrs. Grady returned to her four father- 
less little ones. In a few months after, the youngest, a beautiful boy, died. 
This was not all this sorely stricken woman had to sufifer. During this 
time two brothers had died of consumption ; another one was killed in one of 
the battles around Atlanta. The last remaining brother, Captain Henry Gar- 
trell, died three years after the war closed. Her handsome property 
dwindled away until she was left without even a home. By this time the 
fame of her son, Henry W. Grady, was spreading all over the States. We 
all know how he was cut down in the zenith of his fame. After his death 
in Atlanta Mrs. Grady and her daughter Mattie returned to Athens to live. 
In June, 1891, Mattie was married to Mr. W. A. Kennon, of Brunswick, 
Georgia, where Mrs. Grady went with them to live, but not for long; for 
in October of the following year Mrs. Kennon died. This was a crushing 
blow to this poor mother, so oft bereaved. Mrs. Kennon was a brilliant 
woman, with the same talents that so marked her brother, Henry W. Had 
her health permitted, she, too, would have made a name in the world. Mrs. 
Grady again returned to Athens to lay this dearly loved daughter with the 
rest of her family, who all lie there except Henry W. Grady, who is buried 
in Atlanta. In the spring after this, Mrs. Grady's only sister, Mrs. John 
W. Nicholson, died, leaving Mrs. Grady the sole survivor of her family. 
William S. Grady, the only child now left, went to North Dakota for his 
health. His mother followed him there. His health improved, but he was 
stricken with paralysis, and died about a year after going there. Again 
this stricken mother turned her face toward Athens, bringing the precious 
body of this last remaining child. Ninety miles they had to come through 
the bitter, biting cold by stage before they reached a railroad, and then five 
days more ere the journey was at an end. How she lived through this one 
can scarcely tell ; how she sufifered, no one knows. Few have suffered as 
Mrs. Grady has. Sorrow after sorrow crowded upon her. She knew 
grief in many forms, till her life seems almost a record of woe. It seems 
almost to obliterate the brightness, yet her nature was so sympathetic, her 
disposition so joyous, ever ready to rejoice with those that rejoiced, or lend 
a hand wherever needed, that she is noted among her Athens friends for her 
cheerful, unselfish disposition. Gifted with a wonderful memory, and a 
rare fund of humor, she is always hailed with pleasure whenever she appears, 
for as a raconteur she is unsurpassed. Notwithstanding the trials that have 
befallen her, she is still a well-preserved woman, though a great-grand- 
mother. Her brown wavy hair has scarcely a tinge of gray, and her bright, 
dark eyes sparkle as of yore. As a friend, none is more loyal and true. Join- 
ing the Methodist Church in early youth, she has ever been a devout member 
and a zealous worker. Bringing up her family in the same faith, they all 
entered in that membership. 



^avall ^UlUiamSOU ^Ivd ^amitV, mother of justice Lucius O. 
C. Lamar, was born in Miiledgeville, Georgia, on the 24th of February, 1802. 
Her father was Dr. Thompson Bird, a native of Cecil County, Maryland, who 
had been educated at William and Mary College, afterward at the celebrated 
medical college in Philadelphia, moved to Georgia, and was renowned as a 
physician. Her mother was Susan Williamson, daughter of an officer dis- 
tinguished in the Revolutionary army, and herself one of six sisters who were 
celebrated throughout Georgia for their wit and beauty. 

Sarah Bird was married March 10, 18 19, when only seventeen years of 
age, to Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, then a young lawyer of Miil- 
edgeville, but later one of the most beloved and honored jurists of the State, 
who came to be commonly known as " the great Judge Lamar." He was 
brother to Mirabeau B. Lamar, later President of Texas. Her marriage 
and married life were especially happy. The active genius, lofty virtues, 
and profound erudition of her husband gratified her pride; his varied 
scholarship, poetical tastes, and eloquence stimulated her intellect ; his pu- 
rity, amiability, frankness, and love satisfied her affections. It was an ideal 
home and life. Yet it was visited by affliction, too; for in 1821 she lost her 
deeply loved only brother, in the next year her mother, and a few years 
later her father. For her consolation under these deprivations other ties 
formed themselves, and eight fine children were born, of whom five attained 
maturity. They were Lucius, Susan, Thompson, Mary Ann, and Jeffer- 
son. Of the three sons all were largely endowed by nature, all 
achieved more or less of distinction. Lucius became the great statesman 
and jurist; to say nothing of lesser achievements, he was twice professor in 
the University of Mississippi, member of Congress for four terms, special 
commissioner of the Confederate States to the Empire of Russia, United 
States Senator for two terms. Secretary of the Interior, and Justice of the 
Supreme Court of the United States. 

The happy married life of Mrs. Lamar was rudely terminated on July 4, 
1834, by the sudden death of her honored husband. Left a widow by this 
cruel stroke at thirty-two, with five young children to rear, she was not 
overwhelmed by so great a calamity, but bravely gathered her mental and 
moral forces to meet the duties cast upon her. 3he was spared the trial of 
poverty. Her husband left her a comfortable property, which was con- 
siderably increased by the skilful management of his brother, Mr. Jefferson 
Lamar. Shortly after her husband's death she moved to Covington for 
the purpose of educating her boys at the old Georgia-Conference Manual- 
Labor School. About the year 1838 the labor school was merged into 
Emory College, located at Oxford, and Mrs. Lamar, rtill for educational 
purposes, moved thither, erecting a handsome residence in the village. Here 
she remained for a number of years, and educated her youngest daughter at 
good boarding-schools; she graduated Lucius and Thompson at Emory 
College, Jefferson at the University of Mississippi, and Thompson at the 
medical college in Philadelphia. 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



y^f Mothers o/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



Her generous hospitality, her agreeable personality, and her enthu- 
siastic Methodism made her home the rendezvous for the Methodist clergy 
of that time, and " Sister Lamar " was known far abroad. There such 
fathers in the Church as Sam Anthony, James Evans, Lovick Pierce, and 
many others whose names are historic in Georgia, congregated ; and their 
ennobling and fervid influence contributed largely to the formation of the 
characters of her children. 

In July, 1 85 1, after remaining a widow for seventeen years, she mar- 
ried Col. Hiram B. Troutman, of Vineville, near Macon, Georgia, and moved 
to his home, where she remained until her death. 

In the biography of L. Q. C. Lamar, it is said of her that " she had 
much in this world — beauty, intellect, education, social position, a com- 
petency, admiration, friends, dutiful and bright children — and she had need 
of them all, for her life was often stricken by the sharpest darts of agony. 
In September. 1862, her youngest son, then a lieutenant-colonel of Cobb's 
Legion, fell while leading his command in the engagement at Crampton's 
Gap. In 1864, also, her second son, then colonel of the Fifth Florida, was 
killed in a battle near Petersburg. In the closing period of her life there 
came both upon her and upon her second husband, the companion of her 
old age, the great shadow of darkness, the horror of blindness. But amid 
all these continuing troubles she had the great consolation. From early 
life a humble and devout Methodist, the native strength of her character 
was not her only resource. She had taken the eternal truths into her 
heart, her feet were planted firmly upon the Rock of Ages, and her hand 
was clasped closely in that of the loving Christ. On the 31st of October, 
1879, she died suddenly of heart disease. It was her last request that her 
body be taken to Milledgeville, and there be buried by the side of her first 
husband." 

The blindness spoken of in this passage was relieved before her death, 
as also was that of her husband, by successful operations for cataract. Writ- 
ing of this period of her life, Bishop Joseph S. Key said, " She anticipated 
its coming, and stored her memory with many precious passages of scripture 
on which to dwell in meditation in the darkness. A most touching sight 
it was to see the two aged saints sitting together under the cloud of their 
blindness, repeating to each other the promises and hopes of the Word of 
God." 

She possessed that perfection of personality which adorns every circle 
into which one may be thrown. Tall and queenly in figure, beautiful in 
feature, she had an equable and amiable temper, sincerity, truthfulness, 
grace, dignity; gifted with great and varied talents, she had a wide and 
thorough culture ; steadfast in piety, she was liberal and charitable in her 
views; humble in prosperity, strong in adversity; and she presided ably over 
a large domestic establishment, dispensing a noble hospitality. " Her life 
was monumental goodness, her end was peace." 

6 




LORETTO REBECCA LAMAR CHAPPELL 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



I^OVCttO glcbCCCa ^amaV ©TxappcU, daughter of John and Re- 
becca Lamar, was born in Putnam County, Georgia, on Jul}' i8, 1818. 
She was born and reared on her father's plantation, in one of the most 
beautiful country homes in Middle Georgia, located about half way be- 
tween Milledgeville and Eatonton. She was the youngest of eight chil- 
dren, four sons and four daughters. Her four brothers all became dis- 
tinguished men. They were Judge L. Q. C. Lamar, an eminent jurist, and 
father of the great Mississippi Senator L. Q. C. Lamar; Gen. Mirabeau B. 
Lamar, soldier, poet, and statesman, and President of the Republic of Texas; 
Dr. Thomas R. Lamar, a once renowned physician of Macon ; and Hon. 
Jefferson Lamar, who became one of the most successful and wealthiest 
planters in Georgia. Many of the descendants of these four brothers have 
risen to distinction in various professions and callings in Georgia and in 
other States. 

Mrs. Chappell received her education principally at the schools in 
Eatonton, and at a famous seminary in Scottsboro, in the suburbs of Mill- 
edgeville, taught by Dr. Brown, a very noted educator of that day. She 
spent much of her young ladyhood in Eatonton and in Milledgeville, both 
of which places were famous at that time for their high social culture. In 
Milledgeville she took part in the charming gayeties that used to enliven the 
old capital during the sessions of the Legislature, and that attracted the best 
society from all parts of the State; and many times she was a guest at 
the brilliant receptions and balls given in the grand salons of the Governor's 
Mansion. 

At the age of twenty-three years she married the Hon. Absalom H. 
Chappell, one of the grandest men that Georgia ever produced. He was a 
lawyer of great ability and a distinguished statesman. He took an illus- 
trious part in many important events in the history of the Commonwealth. 
He was for many years a member of the State Legislature, and at one time 
President of the Senate, and he was a member of the United States Congress 
during the administration of President Tyler. He was the author of a 
book entitled " Miscellanies of Georgia," which is one of the ablest and 
most valuable contributions that has ever been made to the history of the 
State. He was one of the last of that grand type of moral and intellectual 
manhood which in former years rendered Georgia illustrious, but which 
now, alas, seems to have passed away forever. He died in 1877, at the 
advanced age of seventy-six years, and was laid to rest beneath the sacred, 
conscious sod of the dear old State that he loved and served so well. 

During the Civil War no Georgia woman was more heroically devoted 
to the cause of the South than was Mrs. Chappell. Her own sons were mere 
boys, too young to go into the army; but many of her kindred, noble, 
promising young men, poured out their life's blood on the battle-fields of 
the Confederacy. She was the first President of the Soldiers' Aid Society in 
Columbus, and throughout the four years of the war she toiled, with her 

7 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



own hands knitting socks, making garments, preparing bandages and lint 
for the men at the front, and day and night she nursed the sick and dying 
soldiers in the Confederate Hospital at Columbus. 

Mrs. Chappell is now (1899) eighty-one years old. She feels the physi- 
cal feebleness of old age, but she still retains in a very extraordinary degree 
that remarkable brightness and vivacity of mind that has always charac- 
terized her. She shows not the slightest sign of the " second childhood " 
that is usually so manifest in persons of her advanced years. In this re- 
spect she is the wonder and admiration of all who know her. A warm, lov- 
ing, sympathetic heart ; a bright, vivacious mind ; remarkable powers of 
conversation; and perfect, high-bred manners — these qualities, w'hich have 
always rendered her an attractive woman to all sorts of people, have 
acquired an additional sweetness and lustre with her beautiful old age, and 
make her to-day a most interesting and charming octogenarian. It is im- 
possible for any human being — man, w-oman, or child — to know her even 
casually without loving her. She is passing her last days on earth happily 
and serenely at her home in Columbus, where she has lived for more than 
forty years. 

Mrs. Chappell has five living children — one daughter, Mrs. James H. 
Toomer, of Portsmouth. Virginia, and four sons. Her four sons are all men 
of marked ability and lofty character, and they have all attained distinction in 
their several callings and professions. They are President J. Harris Chap- 
pell, one of the most distinguished educators in the South, and the upbuilder 
and head of that great State institution, the Georgia Normal and Industrial 
College; Hon. Thomas J. Chappell, a leading lawyer of Columbus, who has 
served with great distinction many terms in the State Legislature, and who 
at present holds in that body the important and responsible position of 
Chairman of the Finance Committee; Hon. Lucius H. Chappell, one of the 
ablest and most successful business men in the State, and a recognized leader 
in all of the progressive movements in his section, and who is now serving 
his second term as the efificient Mayor of the city of Columbus; and Mr. 
Lamar Chappell, who moved out West in his early manhood, and who now 
lives in ^Memphis, Tennessee, where he is manager of one of the largest 
cotton-seed oil mills in America. 



'The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



|3tX<tVlJ g^ntTcVSOU ^autCV, the mother of Sidney Lanier. The great- 
est of the earth have paid tribute to motherhood. English and American 
prose and verse teem with these testimonies of love and filial acknowledg- 
ments. Brave warriors and gentle singers join in expressions of affec- 
tion and in efforts to commemorate the inexhaustible tenderness of their 
devoted mothers. 

Motherhood is the pulsating centre of home, and home is the most 
firmly based institution of our modern life. Abraham Lincoln, typical 
American, said, " x\ll that I am or hope to be I owe to my mother." 

Robert E. Lee, typical Virginian, was so helpful and devoted as a son 
that when he left home to go to the West Point Military Academy his 
mother exclaimed, " How can I do without Robert ! He is both son and 
daughter to me." 

It would be repetition of the same precious human feeling, however 
varied in form of expression, to recount many instances of the strength 
and imperishableness of this mortal bond, which would seem to confer on 
mortals a heritage that is immortal. 

There was an extraordinary tie of tenderness, respect, admiration bind- 
ing Sidney Lanier to his mother. Understanding of each other's qualities 
and mutual sympathy in taste and talents were reciprocal with them. 

Mary Jane Anderson was the second daughter of ALijor Hezekiah 
R. and Martha M. Anderson, of Nottaway County, Virginia. 

She was born not far from Jenning's Ordinary, in that county, and 
received some of her education in Petersburg and Richmond. The date of 
birth is December 14, 1822. 

" She had a splendid ear for music, and indeed excelled in the practice 
of art, which was always a source of so much pleasure to her family and 
her friends," writes a devoted sister concerning her. 

This talent was encouraged and improved by some lessons taken under 
the direction of a lady then living in Petersburg, whose musical education 
had been received in France. 

At the Commencement exercises of Randolph Alacon College she met 
a young student from the South, who was preparing himself for a legal 
career. This acquaintance quickly flowered into love, and she was married, 
at the age of seventeen, on October 27, 1840, to young Robert Sampson 
Lanier. 

The officiating minister was the Rev. Mr. T. Pryor, a brother (I think) 
of the after distinguished Roger A. Pryor, a general in the South, and a 
judge in New York City. 

The father of Sidney, Robert S. Lanier, became a lawyer of fifty years' 
practice at Macon, Georgia. 

The lovely young wife, thus transplanted from Virginia to Georgia, was 
of medium stature, fair complexion, blue eyes, and with dark brown hair 
that was yet lustrous enough to suggest a glossy black. 

9 



The Mothers o/* 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



Sidney Lanier was the eldest child of this happy union, and there were 
two other children, a boy and a girl. 

Her mind must have been particularly quick, alert, and vigorous. 
Those who knew her niQst intimately all speak of this. They write affec- 
tionately of her that her powers of conversation were notable, and that in any 
well-tempered debate she could finish an argument with wonderful clever- 
ness and aptitude. 

These same affectionate witnesses love to dwell on her qualities as a 
true, faithful, devoted, and tender-hearted mother. 

She was an ardent adherent of the Presbyterian faith; she seemed to 
have interplaited the principles of the Christian's Bible into the very fibres 
of her being. 

Her children were never punished with the rod. She chastened them 
with more loving methods of discipline, and thus, doubtless, were preserved, 
in the poetic son, especially, those exquisite sensibilities which characterized 
his rare and rarely gifted spirit. 

She was most industrious in the forms of woman's handiwork, and in 
later life, when she had become a confirmed invalid, worked assiduously 
when too weak to rise from her bed. 

Her tastes were for music and literature. She loved the British classics, 
poets, essayists, and historians. 

In a faded volume of Thomas Moore, from whose binding much of the 
gilt illumination is worn by fifty years of use, occurs on the yellowed fly-leaf: 
" To Mary J. Lanier : 

In testimony of her love of literature, this sweet work is inscribed most 
affectionately by her husband, Robert S. Lanier." 

The brief life is like an exquisite rose of a few days. Its budding beauty 
and indescribable charm of perfume make the spot of its growing a shrine 
of radiant holiness, and then its petals vanish with the first cold of early 
autumn. 

The life of patience and courage ended May 22, 1865. 
The wife and mother breathed her last breath, looking into the eyes 
of her best-beloved, in the midst of a family reunited after the perilous 
separations of a disastrous war, and with the lips of her brother Clifford 
Anderson sounding in her hearing the words of the Master recorded in the 
fourteenth chapter of St. John the divine, " Let not your heart be troubled." 

Clifford A. L. 



10 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



^Oltlsa ^avla ^OVtltCU was bom on tlie 28th of March, 1799, in 
the section of Georgia now known as Baldwin County, which was, at that 
time, on the western frontier of the lands occupied by the white people of 
the State. Her father, Abner Davis, a civil engineer, was a native of the 
North, and removed to Georgia to pursue his profession. 

At an early age Louisa Northen was placed at the boarding-school of 
Nathan S. S. Beman, in Mt. Zion, Hancock County, Georgia, for years 
a noted educational centre, and there received all her educational advan- 
tages. She was married on January 16, 1817, at her father's home in Jones 
County, Georgia, to Hon. Peter Northen, a descendant of John Northen, 
who emigrated from England to York County, Virginia, in 1635. She was 
with her husband on his plantation in Jones County until 1840. At that 
date they removed to Penfield, Georgia, where Mr. Northen was called to 
take charge of the Agricultural Department of Mercer University, in which 
position he continued until the department was abolished in 1844. This 
section of Georgia was Mrs. Northen's home until the death of her husband 
in 1863. The most of her remaining years were passed in Mt. Zion, Georgia, 
at the home of her son, \\'illiam J. Northen, who, subsequent to her death, 
became Governor of Georgia. At the home of her son she died, in the 
eighty-third year of her age, on the 26th of December, 1881. 

Mrs. Northen united with the Flat Shoals Baptist Church in Jones 
County, in the twenty-second year of her age, having previously been a 
member of the Presbyterian Church. To the end of her life she continued 
a true and devoted Christian. As long as she lived in her own home, no 
guests were so welcome as ministers of the Gospel ; indeed, her best bed- 
room was set apart for their exclusive use, being known as " the preacher's 
room." 

To her husband she was a helpmeet indeed, being his loyal and active 
supporter in every work in which he engaged. During Mr. Northen's con- 
nection with Mercer University in its early years, she Avas like a mother 
to hundreds of young men who received instruction there. 

She was preeminently a home-keeper, and no more united and devoted 
family ever gathered around a hearthstone than the family in which she was 
the revered and beloved wife and mother. 

The example of her beautiful life was an irresistible and unceasing in- 
spiration to all who came in intimate contact with her. and to know her was 
to forever hold her in loving remembrance. 

In manner she was dignified, quiet, unobtrusive, and the incarnation of 
sincerity. She was a woman of rare individuality. Among the character- 
istics which were hers in a marked degree were unceasing industry, neatness, 
perseverance, tact, unselfishness, gentleness, fidelity to friends and dutj', 
firmness, extreme modesty, fine judgment, aversion to display, love for 
humanity, and a most remarkable Christian fortitude and cheerful resigna- 
tion under what she believed to be the will of God. It was a matter of 



II 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



comment among her children that " mother " had never been known to 
repeat the most inoffensive bit of gossip heard upon a round of caUs or at 
other times. 

In personal appearance Mrs. Northen, as a young woman, was con- 
sidered beautiful, being very fair, with dark blue eyes, dark hair, and bright 
color. 

Her strong intellect remained undimmed up to the closing hours of 
her advanced age. 

After a well spent life, her last moments were characterized by a calm 
assurance, and a perfect trust in her beloved Lord ; and she passed out of 
life saying, " There is one thing sure, I am not afraid to die." 

When her sweet spirit took its flight into the great beyond, no more 
fitting words were spoken of her than these: " Blessed are the pure in heart, 
for they shall see God." 



13 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



|IXtlla Jvn03£ itXtll ^SlTxCCUt; was the mother of General Joseph 
Wheeler, and was born at Xewton, Massachusetts, March lo, 1799, died 
June 26, 1842. 

Her sister ]\Iaria had married Edward Fenwick Campbell, who met 
her while he was a student at Harvard College. Julia visited her sister, Mrs. 
Campbell, at her home in Augusta, Georgia, and there met Joseph Wheeler, 
and they were married at her home in Newton, September 12, 1825. 

Their children were : Lucy Josephine, married Sterling Smith ; Sarah 
Louise, died ; William, who was an officer in the army of Northern Virginia, 
died from exposure in campaign, December 26, 1861 ; Joseph, who served 
in the Confederate Army, and also in the United States Army. 

We have the following information regarding the ancestors of Julia 
Knox Wheeler, the mother of Joseph Wheeler: 

" John Newgate, or Newdigate. — Li his sale of land in Tymworth, 
4 miles N. by E. from Bury, St. Edmonds County, Suffolk, he is called 
Newdigate, alias Newgate. 

" In the records of the old Lynde Bible, of 1595, which belonged to 
his grandson, he is called ' Mr. John Newdigate.' 

" In searching for his history we find that the family to which he be- 
longed in England had called itself, for many generations, ' Newgate, alias 
Newdigate.' " — Salisbury's Family Histories and Genealogies, vol. i., part 2, 

P- 473- 
Page 479 : 

First Generation : W'illiam Newgate, or Newdigate, born 1485 ; married 
Katherine. 

Second Generation: Their children were: Robert, born 1512; Richard, 
born 1515; Robert, born 151S; Elizabclii. born 1525. All were under six- 
teen on September 28, 1528. Robert, the elder, married Thomasinc. She 
was buried December 5, 1509. 

Third Generation: Their children were: Phillip, born 1552; died 
August I, 1636; Robert, born 1556; Anne, born 1560; Anne, married Henry 
Frost, October 4, 1601 ; Phillip, married December 13, 1578, Joanne, 
daughter of Guaither (Walter) Hoo, of Hessett County, Suffolk, a large 
landholder, and owner in Hessett and Rougham. She died October 10, 
1620. 

Fourth Generation : Their children were : John Newgate, born at 
Southwark, near London Bridge, about 1580. This is the ancestor who 
went to New England. Died September 4, 1665. Andrew, baptized Feb- 
ruary 25, 1581 ; John, baptized November 24, 1583. This John left prop- 
erty to his brother John in New England. His will dated October i, 1642, 
says: "The same to be and remain unto my brother, John Newgate, now 
living, resident in the parts beyond the seas called New England, and to his 
heirs forever. — John Newgate." Joseph, baptized December 8, 1585; died 
1642. 

13 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



John Newgate, born 1580, married (1) Lydia, who died, 1620; (2), 
Thomasine Hayes, November i, 1620 — she died, 1625; married (3) Anne. 
She died, 1679. 

Fifth Generation : The children of John Newgate and Lydia were : Two 
sons and one daughter, who died in infancy, and Ehzabeth, baptized January 
I, 1617: married (i) Rev. John Olhver; married (2) Edward Jackson, 
1648. 

Sixth Generation: Their children were: Sarah, born 1649; Edward, 
born 1652; Ruth, born 1654; Lydia, born 1656; Elizabeth, born 1658. 
Lydia married Joseph Fuller, 1679. 

Seventh Generation: Their children were: John, born 1681 ; Joseph, 2, 
born July 4, 1685; Jonathan, born January 7, 1686; Lydia, born February 15, 
1692; Edward, born March 7, 1694; Isaac, born March 16, 1698; Elizabeth, 
born July i, 1701. Joseph Fuller married, May 11, 1719, Sarah, daughter 
Abraham Jackson. 

Eighth Generation : Their children were : Abraham, born March 23, 
1720. Elizabeth, born October, 1722. Abraham Fuller married Sarah 
Dyer, 1758. 

Ninth Generation : Their daughter, Sarah, born April 27, 1759 : married 
Col. William Hull. 1781. 

Tenth Generation: Their daughter, Julia Knox, born March 10, 1799; 
married Joseph Wheeler, September 12, 1825. 

Eleventh Generation : Their son, Joseph Wheeler, born September 
10, 1836, married Ella Jones, February 8, 1866. 

Twelfth Generation : Their children were : Joseph, Jr. ; Lucy Louise : 
Annie Early; Ella, died young; Julia K. H. ; Thomas H., drowned while in 
United States Navy ; Carrie Peyton. 

General Wheeler's mother, Julia Knox Hull, had one brother, Abraham 
Hull. He graduated at Harvard, 1805 ; was captain Ninth Infantry, United 
States Army ; killed at Lundy's Lane, July 25, 1814. Lossing's " History of 
the War of 1812," p. 828, has a picture of his tombstone, on wliich is in- 
scribed : 

" This was erected by his brother officers to mark the spot where Capt. 
Hull, U. S. Army, fell in the memorable action at Lundy's Lane, July 25. 
1814, gallantly leading his men to the charge." 

Lossing also says: " He was an excellent ofihcer, and his loss was much 
lamented." 

General Wheeler's mother was first cousin to Commodore Isaac Hull, 
who, as commander of the " Constitution," won the naval battle over the 
British frigate " Guerriere." 

Julia Knox Wheeler was a most devoted Christian and charitable 
woman. At her request her husband gave freedom to a portion of his slaves, 
and she died from exposure caused by indefatigable work in visiting sick and 
suffering families. 

14 



The Mothers of 

Sonic 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



^U^abcth SSlaVC %p\\%r the mother of Dr. Crawford Long, discov- 
erer of anaesthesia, March 3, 1842, was born in Amherst, Virginia, March 22, 
1789. Her ancestors were Enghsh, of means and prominence. Edward 
Ware, her father, espoused the cause of the Colonies, and fought through 
the Revolutionary War. 

Some time after its close he came to Georgia with his family and slaves, 
and made his home on a plantation in Madison County. Among his posses- 
sions was a considerable amount of Continental money. Believing it would 
never be redeemed, and wishing to keep it as a memento, it was used in 
papering a room. Later, when by act of Congress the paper currency be- 
came valuable, this was so firmly attached to the wall that its only worth was 
from association. 

Elizabeth Ware was well educated for those days, having attended the 
best schools. She was said in her youth to have been the most beautiful 
woman in her section of the State, and had many suitors. At the age of 
twenty-four she married James Long. She was warm-hearted, generous, 
and impulsive, and it was said by the sober Presbyterians that she was 
worldly, loving dress and the pomps of life. Her husband, a Presbyterian 
elder, and a great lover of books, was grave and dignified, but so just and 
good a man and neighbor, that it lessened the awe which one was apt to 
feel in his presence. The most beautiful devotion existed between them, and 
it was his pleasure to surround her with every luxury. For many years, 
before the day of railroads, handsome clothing and furniture were brought 
to her by wagon from Charleston, nearly three hundred miles, yet she was 
no idle butterfly, but looked well to the ways of her household. 

During her husband's absence, when State Senator, or when other 
business called him from home, the affairs at the homestead and the large 
plantation were all under her control. No overseer was employed, but the 
most trusted and faithful of the negro men served as foremen and to " Miss " 
they made their reports, and from her received their orders. All cloth, both 
cotton and woollen, used in making garments for the slaves, as late as 1853, 
was spun and woven on the plantation. A miniature factory, with its 
wheels, carding machines, and looms, was always busy making cotton goods 
for summer and woollen goods for winter wear. It was she who super- 
intended the making of these goods into clothing. Aside from the women 
who did the plain sewing were young women whom she trained to become 
proficient with the needle. Some of them were even taught to embroider 
beautifully on linen. These seamstresses were, as she fondly hoped, to 
descend to her children and grandchildren, little dreaming that soon there 
would be no such thing as inheriting slaves. 

In sickness it was she who saw that her servants had every attention. 
They not only honored but loved her. James Long, her husband, was the 
most prominent and wealthiest man in his county, and was deeply interested 
in educational matters, and endowed the town academy at his death. It was 

15 



■The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



he who engaged the teachers, who were generally young women from the 
North. To them was extended e\'ery courtesy and a hearty welcome at his 
fireside. 

The Long homestead was renowned for its hospitality. Being not far 
from a Presbyterian church, often on Sundays there were as many as twenty 
guests, with servants, horses, and carriages, who were entertained. With 
Presbyterian strictness, all preparations possible were made on Saturday. 

To this couple, Captain James Long and his wife, came those who were 
destitute and afflicted, knowing they would receive sympathy and relief. 
They were the leaders in every enterprise, and although it is more than forty 
years since they passed away, their memory is still loved and honored. 

Elizabeth Long was a devoted, conscientious mother, ambitious for her 
children, yet always instilling into them principles of truth and justice. She 
was so strict in their manner of expression that they were never known to 
use a slang phrase or word. 

One can see that in her sphere, which to many women will seem very 
limited, she was in reality a woman of great executive ability and influence. 
Her fine sense, kindness of heart, and great dignity gave her ascendancy 
among her associates, and the greatest reverence and aft'ection from her 
children. 

After a very happy, prosperous life of more than sixty years, her first 
deep sorrow came in the death of her brother and husband from cholera. 
She nursed them and others unflinchingly until she was stricken with the 
dread malady. Although she recovered her health, her former cheerful, 
brave spirit was broken, and two years after, from an apparently slight ill- 
ness, died May 21, 1856. 

As children we heard the ciders say, " She died of a broken heart ; she 
could not live without her husband." 

One of my last remembrances of her is seeing her in her widow's garb, 
in the large, darkened parlor, gazing sadly upon her husband's picture. The 
last remembrance was of a beautiful old lady clad in spotless white, with a 
smile of ineffable beauty upon her lips, whose spirit had flown to be forever 
with her beloved husband. 



16 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



%'&X\\tX JtabcVSUaui gUlott was bom in Savannah, Georgia, in 
1778, and was the daughter of James Habersham, Jr., who served with 
distinction in the Revohitionary A\'ar, and Hester Wylly his wife. Her 
grandfather was Governor James Habersham, one of the Colonial Gover- 
nors of Georgia. She was an only daughter and educated at home, as was 
the fashion of the day, and grew up to be a very lovely and accomplished 
girl. Living so soon after the hardships of the Revolution she was well 
taught in the practical arts of life, and something about the ways of manag- 
ing a household, so that when, in 1796 at the age of eighteen she was 
married to Mr. Stephen Elliott of Charleston, South Carolina, she was quite 
fitted to take charge of his household, and became a notable housewife and 
mother. 

She was naturally of a very lively temperament, and sorely was she 
tried in training herself to the staid ways of a matron. Her husband, ten 
years her senior, and by nature a student and deeply engaged in literary 
pursuits seemed to forget at times that his young wife would have enjoyed 
the pleasures of society for \Ahich she was so fitted. He was wrapped up 
in his scientific studies, being especially absorbed in his " Botany," which 
of itself ranked him high among the literary and scientific men of the 
country. 

Esther's buoyant disposition was a great help to her through her whole 
life, but like most persons of gay temperament she was given to depression 
at times. This was not to be wondered at when we know the tragedy which 
came into her life after she had been married about eight j'ears. Mr. 
Elliott's summer home was in Beaufort. South Carolina, where most of his 
own family lived. After the death of Mr. Habersham, Esther joyfully wel- 
comed her mother, who then came to make her home with her. In the 
summer of 1804 Mr. Elliott was called to Washington on important State 
business, and he was very anxious for his wife to accompany him. She was, 
of course, delighted at the idea of revisiting the Capital, and could the more 
easily lea\-e home since her mother would be there to take charge of the 
children, of whom there were three, Stephen, Susan, and ^laria. Unfortu- 
nately it proved a most unhealthy season throughout the South, and while 
Mr. and Mrs. Elliott were in Washington letters reached them telling of the 
sickness which was devastating Beaufort and the surrounding country. 
They immediately left for home, intending to remove their children to a 
higher climate. While on their way, travelling of course in their own 
conveyance, they missed the letters which were sent to them telling of the 
death of Mrs. Habersham, so that when they reached Beaufort and found 
only the servants in the house, and learned that not only Mrs. Habersham 
but the two elder children Stephen and Susan had succumbed to the dread- 
ful fever scourge, and that little Maria had been taken to the home of a 
near relative, iho ■^hock was so great tliat 'Mrs. Elliott was never quite the 
same again, and the little girl who survived became the most precious of all 
2 17 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



those children who came to her afterward. She had ten children, alto- 
gether, four sons and six daughters. The eldest, Stephen, died as we have 
seen, in childhood, the other three sons (the eldest of whom was also named 
Stephen) all became clergymen of the Episcopal Church. Stephen, born 
on August 31, 1806, was the first Bishop of Georgia, and was consecrated 
in Christ Church, Savannah, in 1841 — that church in which his grandfather 
Governor James Habersham was the first Lay Reader and co-worker with 
the Rev. John Wesley, who was the first rector of the parish, and who was 
often assisted by Whitfield in his missionary labors. 

Phoebe, Esther's fifth daughter, became the wife of the first American 
Missionary Bishop to China, the Rt. Rev. Wm. J. Boone, and her eldest son 
William, also became Bishop of the same jurisdiction after his father's 
death. 

Esther, brought up as she was by most religious parents, was through- 
out her life a consistent and conscientious Christian, and brought up her 
children in the faith and discipline of the Church of England, which was 
her goodly heritage. Her husband died suddenly in 1829. just after he had 
been called in to see and bless his eldest son's first child, Elizabeth. 

Esther survived her husband ciglit years, dying in Savannah in 1837, 
and her life was one of remarkable fortitude and sweetness. 

Bishop Elliott always spoke of his mother in tlie tone of tenderest love 
and admiration, and realized that from her he had inherited that joyousness 
of temperament which helped him through so many trying times in his 
life, and also from her teaching was inculcated that undying reverence 
for " the faith once delivered to the Saints." 

Esther Habersham Elliott Shoup. 



18 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



CTxavIottC ^IVU ^itrnwell glUott was born in Beaufort, South 
Carolina, on March 31, 1810. Her mother, Sarah Bull, was the daughter of 
Gen. Stephen Bull, one of the colonial governors of South Carolina. Her 
father was John Gibbs Barnwell, grandson of Gen. John Barnwell, known 
as " Tuscarora," because of his success in ridding the colony of that tribe of 
Indians. 

Charlotte's childhood was exceedingly happy and picturesque, brought 
up as she was on those glorious Sea Islands, which girdle the coast of South 
Carolina. She was especially gifted musically, and from the early age of 
seven was carefully trained by a fine German master, who happened to 
come to Beaufort, as the organist of St. Helena's Church. She became a 
charming musician, playing the organ, piano, and guitar with equal brill- 
iancy. She also had a beautiful voice. Charlotte was always the centre of 
the gayety and life around her, always cheerful, bright, lovable, and un- 
selfish. She had a poetic temperament without any sentimentality, and was 
a charming conversationalist. During the first administration of Andrew 
Jackson, she reigned in Washington society, in 1830, as one of the most 
brilliant belles from the South. 

In 1839 she married her cousin, the Rev. Stephen Elliott, who was 
a widower with two children, and was at the time chaplain, and professor 
of Christian Evidences, in the State College of South Carolina, situated in 
Columbia. In 1841, Professor Elliott, was elected first Bishop of Georgia, 
and was consecrated to that office in Christ Church, Savannah, which then 
became his home. 

In 1844, just three years after Bishop Elliott's coming to Georgia, it 
was pressed upon him by the trustees of Montpelier, the diocesan school 
for girls, that this splendid church property was in such dire financial straits 
that it would have to be sold for debt. The Bishop believed so strongly in 
the education of women, that when the sum of indebtedness was mentioned 
to him he, being a man of wealth, volunteered to pay the debt himself, and 
carry on the school. To this end lie removed from Savannah to Montpelier, 
in the early part of 1845. Gradually it began to dawn upon him, as the 
business opened up, that he had undertaken to pay a much larger sum than 
he dreamed of, and that he had been greatly deceived by the superintendent. 
His honor was at stake, however, and in order to satisfy the demands of the 
creditors, he had to give up everything he owned, even to his valuable 
library. Mrs. Elliott also gave up all her property to assist her husband in 
fulfilling his bond. So that from being people of means and affluence, they 
found themselves with an increasing family of young children, entirely de- 
pendent upon the salary the diocese was able to pay its bishop. He never 
flinched, however, and for years he was ground down, trying to keep up the 
school in which he felt such deep interest, and for which he had sacrificed 
everything, feeling assured that in this work he was doing the best thing 
for the Church in Georgia. And to this day, all over this broad land, may 

19 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



be found mothers and grandmothers, who bear testimony to the high and 
ever abiding influence this school has had upon their lives; and their love for 
it, and for the noble and gentle Bishop who was ever their friend and guide, 
is beautiful to hear. Mrs. Elliott, the willing and cheerful co-worker with 
her husband, sharing his sacrifices and labors, was also the admired and 
beloved friend of these girls, who always sought her help and sympathy in 
their troubles. 

There were six children born to Bishop and Mrs. Elliott, three sons and 
three daughters, the eldest son, Robert Woodward Barnwell Elliott, was one 
of the most charming men of his generation; he seemed born to command, 
and all his life was foremost in whatever he undertook. He served with dis- 
tinction in the Civil War, and was severely wounded at the battle of Chan- 
cellorsville, and left for dead on the field. After the war, finding himself with 
wife and child and no means of support, he undertook rice-planting, but 
soon found that he was called to a higher life, and turned to the ministry. 
He was ordained deacon in 1868, was advanced to the priesthood in 1869, 
and was elected the first Missionary Bishop of Western Texas in 1874, while 
rector of St. Philip's Church, Atlanta, where he was consecrated. For 
twelve years he made heroic struggles in his missionary work, and left a re- 
markable impress on his jurisdiction, where like St. Paul he labored in 
weariness and painfulness, in watching, in hunger and thirst, and in peril 
often, until worn out, while still young, in 1887, he laid down his life in his 
Master's cause, beloved and never to be forgotten. 

The second daughter of this family, Sarah Barnwell Elliott, inherited 
many of her mother's charms, and at an earl}- age showed decided gifts as 
a writer, often writing weird and exciting stories for the enjoyment of her 
young companions. Unfortunately, she received very little encourage- 
ment in this direction from those she most revered, so that she kept her 
talent buried and out of sight. In 1879, her first book, "The Felmeres," 
was published. It was a striking story to come from the pen of a young 
girl, and it made quite a sensation. Not long after. " Jerry." her second 
book, came out and was perhaps more popular than the first. Since these 
first efiforts she has become a recognized writer of great ability, and has 
published two volumes of remarkable short stories. 

After the death of Bishop Elliott, his widow removed with her family to 
the University of the South, at Sewanee, Tennessee, of which he had been 
one of the distinguished founders, and where her second son. Dr. John B. 
Elliott had accepted the chair of chemistry. Mrs. Elliott's home was for 
many years one of the most charming centres at Sewanee, and here she 
lived cared for by her daughter, Sarah Barnwell, until her long and happy 
life closed in 1895, when she had reached the goodly age of eighty-five, 
loved, honored, and regretted by all. 

Esther H.\bersh.\m Elliott Shoup. 

20 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



|1tXaV0avct ^X. C^atTtOtttl^ mother of Patrick Calhoun, was the 
second daughter of Gen. Dutt' Green and Lucretia Edwards Green. She 
was born February i8, 1816. She graduated with first honors at the New 
Haven Academy in Connecticut, which was the finest school of that day. 
She was much admired in Washington City, where she met the foremost 
men in society and politics, as General Green entertained bounteously. Her 
conversational powers and fiow of language always insured her social success. 

A warm intimacy existed between the Greens and Calhouns. She 
married Andrew Pickens Calhoun, the eldest son of Hon. John C. Calhoun, 
in 1836. They were among thepioneer settlers of Marengo County, Alabama, 
where she was much beloved. Her taste for the beautiful was seen in her 
home and grounds; a flower garden of five acres was her pride. In 1854 
she moved to Fort Hill, South Carolina, the home of the deceased J. C. 
Calhoun, where her splendid entertainments and her well-regulated home 
made her famous. 

Hers was a social nature. The courtesy and kindhness that filled her 
heart made her guest at ease in her home; often guest followed guest, 
until years passed without her family dining alone. She never neglected 
social duties, or the little elegancies that make home charming; her car- 
riage, horses, and home were kept in fautless style and simplicity. She was 
no idler. Her husband boasted of her executive ability. Under her manage- 
ment was the household, flower garden, loomhouse, and spinning-room, 
where all the cloth worn by the slaves was made ; the cotton and wool 
necessary was supplied by the plantation. Bolt after bolt of good cloth 
and hundreds of pairs of well-knit socks left this loomhouse during the 
Civil War, to helpclothe Confederate soldiers. Next, her sewing-room, where 
about thirty bright slave girls were taught to cut, fit, sew, and embroider — 
everything worn on the place was made there — -each taking a personal pride 
in her work. Mrs. Calhoun always saw to the distributing of these clothes, 
rewarding the neat ; her effort was to have the happiest and best clothed 
slaves in the State. Her inn house was always well stocked with fresh meat, 
and was ever open to the free use of her sick neighbors of high or low 
degree. Her organization was perfect; the head of each department w^as 
responsible ; a few hours personal supervision each day kept every thing in 
order; the rest of her time she devoted to pleasure and reading. 

Hers was a noble life ; always ready to excuse the erring, always 
giving a helping hand to the striving, kind encouragement to the poor, she 
was beloved by high and low. Slavery under her management had no 
horrors; to-day her favorite slaves care for her grandchildren, and tell 
them of the happy old days of plantation life. 

Where her life proved greatest was when husband and fortune were 
lost together. He sacrificed all to the Confederacy, saying if he could give 
his sons to it. he could his fortune. He always took Confederate money as if 
it were gold. Her brave heart never faltered. Her sons soon became her 



T/te Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



fortune; confidence in their success never failed her. She possessed a 
strong character, with a stern love of accurate truth, which made her well 
fitted to guide her sons. 

In 1 87 1 she moved to Georgia, to the home of her father, General 
Green. The prediction made by J. C. Calhoun of Atlanta's growth was a 
fact to her; she wanted to identify her sons with Georgia. Three promis- 
ing young men filled early graves, but she kept up a stout heart, redoubling 
her love for those left. To her energy, thrift, economy, and daily Christian 
life her sons owe much of their success. 

She was a member of the Episcopal Church. She died in Atlanta, 
July 27, 1891, at the home of her son Patrick; her other son. John, and all 
of her grandchildren were about her. She lived to see her dearest wishes 
gratified and to enjoy the wealth of her sons. An Episcopal minister whom 
she had reared, and her favorite slave, Jane, were with her. All felt her 
influence would not stop with her death. 

Hers was a life well spent. Few wrinkles were on her brow, and no 
lines of discontent marred her face. 



22 



The Mothers of 

Some 
Distinguished 

Georgians 



ganct plc|^<tC gvautlClji. it was a May morning in the early thirties 
that Httle Janet McRae first saw the Hght in a humble pioneer cottage 
in Montgomery County, Georgia. She was the tliird in a family of seven 
children born to Christopher and Christian (McCrimmon) McRae. Her 
parents were a part of a Scotch colony that, attracted by the beauty and fer- 
tility of southeast Georgia, had settled in Montgomery County, and were 
pure Scotch on both sides. Her father was born in Scotland, and was one 
of the Highland Clan McRae, and came from a long line of noble ancestry. 
His parents immigrated to this country when he was yet an infant, and 
settled in Moore County, North Carolina. Her mother was born in Robin- 
son County, North Carolina, of Scottish parents. Little Janet's childhood 
training was simple, but strict, and there was thrown around her life all those 
safeguards of character for which Scottish parental discipline is noted. She 
was taught truthfulness, obedience, and industry. As soon as she was old 
enough, she walked with her brother and sister four or five miles to school ; 
and although they had to brave the storms of winter and suns of summer 
through these miles of pine forests, and cross a large creek on a foot-log, 
they were never late, and never had a tardy mark. 

Janet was given no middle name, but when her parents found her silently 
weeping over this omission, because the other children all had one, they gave 
her the name of Baker, in honor of a favorite old Presbyterian minister. 
She was reared in the Presbyterian faith, and has reared her children in the 
same faith, every one of them having early joined the church, and three of 
her four sons being elders in the Presbyterian Church. Possessing a bright 
mind and the power of application, she was a diligent pupil. Once, when 
only eight years old, in the regular Friday evening spelling-bee, she spelled 
down the entire school, part of it consisting of grown young men and 
women. This made her quite a heroine in the estimation of her cousin, now 
the Hon. John C. McRae, of Montgomery County. In after years she and 
this cousin married brother and sister, thus uniting still more closely the 
ties between them. Motherless at seventeen, she devoted herself with tender 
assiduity to the care of a younger sister. She was an adept with her needle, 
and was accomplished in all the intricacies of carding, spinning, and weaving. 
Her schooldays covered only a limited period, and she never received a 
college education, but she improved every meagre opportunity to gather 
knowledge and improve her mind. Conscientious, capable, and industrious, 
pretty, and with a mind of exceptional intelligence, she had many suitors, 
but refused to leave her bereaved father, and with her older sister assumed 
all the cares of the home and the younger motherless children. In addition 
to her own home cares, Janet McRae often sewed for the neighbors, and 
taught their children, but never spent the money she earned to buy a new 
dress for herself until she had enough to buy one for her little sister. But 
the little sister soon grew into womanhood, the father died, and this plucky 
and talented young woman went to Waresboro, in Ware County, to teach in 

23 



•T/ie Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



Mr. William Brantley's family. He was a prominent merchant, and his 
brother Benjamin was his clerk, and the schoolroom was opposite the store. 
Miss McRae and Benjamin had known each other before, in Montgomery 
County, and a mutual admiration had already awakened in their breasts. 
On Sunday, August lo, 1856, they were married, and lived for one year in 
Ware County. Then Mr. Brantley, desiring to begin business for himself, 
moved into the adjoining county of Pierce. In the little village of Black- 
shear, with no capital but youth, energy, integrity, and ability, he began the 
battle of life, and steadily advanced higher and higher up the ladder of 
success. The little mercantile business thus started flourished, until at his 
death, March 13, 1891, Mr. Brantley was the richest man in his county. 
Since then three of his sons have so successfully carried on the business 
that now the Brantley Company is one of the largest establishments in 
Southeast Georgia. Amidst the cares, burdens, and responsibilities that 
fell on her, Mrs. Brantley struggled on, and never for a moment wavered in 
the path of duty or her grand conception of right and wrong. The war 
came, but as they were not rich, they had not much to lose. Her husband 
joined the Fourth Georgia Cavalry as private, but being called to fill an 
important ci\il of^ce served only a short time. So while not deprived of 
his companionship and help, nor tormented with the fear of his being killed 
in battle, she still suffered the rigors and hardships of those cruel times. 
Besides all the work and care of home and young children, she made every- 
thing they all wore. She carded, spun, and wove the cloth before she cut 
it out and sewed it into garments. Often it was four o'clock before she put 
out her candle and retired. 

The same virtues she had she imparted to her children, and early led 
them to religion as the source of life's greatest happiness. Her oldest son, 
now a member of Congress from the Eleventh District, has added lustre to 
the name she has adorned. Between the two is a striking likeness — the 
same gentle and even disposition, quiet and unassuming manner, as well as 
close resemblance in feature and stature. 

Mrs. Brantley's leading characteristic has always been devotion to her 
God. With unswerving love and trust she has turned to Him in every 
change life has brought. It has been her guiding star, and sustained her 
in the greatest sorrow of her life, her husband's death, in March, 1891. 
Heartbroken, she yet turned to Him for strength and comfort. In success 
and prosperity her gentle modesty has never deserted her. She has never 
felt that success made her better than her fellows, and her greeting is as 
sincere as in the first hard days. Despite her limited advantages and the 
severity of her early life, Mrs. Brantley is a most remarkably well-read 
woman. She keeps abreast of the times and its politics. About the Bible 
there is nothing she does not know. She is an enthusiastic cultivator of 
flowers, and her knowledge of them is extensive. 

Janet Brantley Langley. 



^nn l^acJntosTl Wl'iXX% the mother of John EUiott Ward. In 1736, 
when the great Commander Oglethorpe came to Georgia, John Mcintosh, 
Rlohr (Mohr meaning great), led a clan of Scottish Higiilanders into the 
trackless wilderness of the New World, and settled at New Inverness in the 
Altamaha district, now named for them Mcintosh County. The doughty 
deeds of these brave Highlanders illustrate the early and revolutionary 
history of our great Commonwealth. 

The fair-haired Scotch woman who cast her fortunes with her ad- 
venturous husband had been Margary Frazier. To them were born Wil- 
liam, John, Lachlan, George, Ann, and Barbara. Lachlan became the great 
general, and it was he who fought Governor Gwinette because of a slight to 
his brother William. Gwinette was Governor of Georgia, and General 
Mcintosh notified him not to plead the statute of limitations, for he could 
not challenge him while he was Governor of Georgia, but would do so as 
soon as his term of office expired. This was done, the duel was fought, 
and Gwinette fell mortally wounded. William married Mary McKay, and 
to them were born John, who was afterwards Colonel Mcintosh, who was 
arrested by the Spaniards after the Revolutionary War and imprisoned in 
Morro Castle, Havana, for one year, Lachlan (Major). Margary and Hester. 
Lachlan was the father of Commodore James McKay Mcintosh, also of 
Maria, the authoress, and of Ann, the wife of William Ward and mother of 
Hon. John E. Ward. 

Ann's parents were living at Sunbury, Liberty County, Georgia, and 
it was from this hotbed of liberty that her uncle. Col. John Mcintosh, 1)cing 
in command of the fort in 1778, sent that laconic answer, " Come and take 
it," to the British officer who demanded the surrender of the fort, and upon 
his threat to set fire to the town of Sunbury replied, " You fire at one end, 
and I will begin to set fire at the other end." 

It was from such ancestors that Ann Mcintosh was born. Gallantry 
and chivalry were hers by inheritance. Learning in its truest sense was 
hers by association. The teachers who were brought to instruct the youth 
of Liberty County were the best that America or Europe could furnish. 
The religious influences were pure, refining, and exalting, as administered 
by the noble legion of descendants of the early settlers of that county. 
Surrounded by such influences the young life of Ann Mcintosh was passed, 
and in 181 3 she married William Ward. 

She was a most devout member of the Baptist Church under the 
pastorate of the able and beloved Dr. C. O. Scriven. Among such restful 
environments, beloved and honored by all who knew ber, the few happy 
years of wifehood were spent, when she was summoned to her heavenly 
rest. Here her children were born. When she died she left but two sur- 
viving her, John E. \\'ard and Louisa V. Ward, John E. Ward having been 
born on the 2d of October, 1814, and Louisa V. \\'ard, on the 2d of Septem- 
ber, 18 18. Louisa in early life married Abial Winn, a descendant of one of 

25 



T/je Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



the oldest of Liberty County famihes. They have both passed away, but 
they have left a number of children who have happily intermarried with the 
old families of Liberty County, and the names of Stevens, Varnedoe, Law, 
etc., are preserved among their descendants. Almost all of them cling to 
their dear old homes in Liberty County, and preserve unspotted the honor- 
able names they have inherited. 

Sunbury, where Ann Mcintosh was born, married, lived, and died, 
was during her whole life one of the most prosperous and beautiful towns 
in the State of Georgia, or in any other State. It was the last place in 
Georgia that surrendered to the British, and after that surrender a large 
portion of it was burned, and from that shock it never recovered. It be- 
came unhealthy, its commerce was diverted to Savannah, and it rapidly 
dechned. There is not now one house standing on that beautiful old bluff. 

As the Rev. James Stacy stated in his most admirable history of JNIid- 
w-as Congregational Church, "It is sad, indeed, to think that a town once of 
the size and importance of old Sunbury, and the scene of so many instances 
and occurrences, should now be nothing more than a cultivated field, and 
that the cemetery and old fort, the one the resting place of so many of her 
noble dead, the other the scene of such military prowess, should alike be as 
the wild forest. Like Pompeii of old, the whole now lies buried beneath the 
ashes of years; but, unlike Pompeii, utterly beyond the hope of future 
exhumation." 



26 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



Jk.nn C^UllVtCVman I^C^Onte. Among the Puritans who came 
from Dorchester, South CaroHna, to Midway, Georgia, in 1754, was John 
Quarterman and family. The family consisted of his wife, Elizabeth, two 
daughters and five sons, John, William, Robert, Joseph, and Thomas. 
Joseph married a cousin Elizabeth, daughter of an uncle, Robert Quarter- 
man, in 1787, and among a number of children born to them was Ann, on 
the 26th day of October, 1793. 

Of the rugged pioneer life of this community of English Puritans, zeal- 
ous in good works, making history, creating a standard of excellence rarely 
reached in any section of this broad land, in purity and simplicity serving 
God and loving their neighbor, this stock gave root and branch to much of 
the distinction in our great Commonwealth. Here Ann Quarterman passed 
lier childhood and slipped across the brook into maidenhood. Here de- 
voutly she performed life's duties, not shifting its burdens, and found pleas- 
ure and consolation at Midway Church, where some of the ablest divines 
have pointed out the paths of rectitude and 'hurled denunciations at evil 
doers. The educational advantages were far ahead of those in other sec- 
tions of the State — able teachers from the North being engaged for this 
purpose; here Ann was taught, and here in this simple plantation life were 
embellished those fine characteristics which left their influence on her re- 
markable descendants. 

On January 30, 1812, she was married to Louis LeConte. a descendant 
of the French Huguenots. The children of this marriage were William, 
Jane. Elizabeth, John. Louis. Ann, and Joseph. Six lived to maturity, and 
two, John and Joseph have world-wide fame. 

Mrs. LeConte died on 24th of December, 1826, leaving this family of 
seven children, Jane, the daughter of twelve years, taking charge. 

That this was a remarkable family — father and sons — the scientific 
and philosophic, as well as the social, world is ready to acclaim, but who 
stops to give honor to the child sister forced into womanhood by her 
burdens of love? Who can measure her influence or her inspiration? Blessed 
is the mother who can pass into the great unseen having faith in her 
teaching, that a daughter may mould the lives and characters of her chil- 
dren. Thus these great men, John and Joseph LeConte, may revere the 
name of their sister, foster-mother, when they idealize that of the real 
mother. 

This noble sister Jane married Dr. John ]\I. B. Hardin, a man of great 
ability; but his life was cut short by death, and to her were given the joys of 
motherhood, and her children lived to call her blessed. 

Prof. Joseph LeConte saj's of his mother; "As I was but three years old 
when she died, my memory as a continuous history does not extend so far ; 
one single circumstanceconnected with herdeath T distinctlyremember — it is 
that of her lying in bed and a bowl of blood on the table near by ; this single 
fact lives in my memory and is to me all the more significant because my 

27 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



father always regarded that bowl of blood as her death knell ; it was taken 
by the physician in charge against his judgment. All inflammatory dis- 
eases were treated at that time by blood-letting — she died of pneumonia. 
Of course I know nothing of my mother from memory ; all my knowledge 
of her is indirect, i.e., from her influence on my elder brothers and sister, 
and especially the passionate love and lifelong grief of my father. The 
death of his wife almost crazed him; it produced a sort of mental paralysis 
from which he recovered only after many years; I well remember how, 
several years after her death, he would sit in silent gloom, then, snatching 
me up in his arms he would strain me to his heart and smother me with 
passionate kisses, and then as suddenly set me down and relapse again 
into silence and gloom — on this account my early feelings toward him 
were a mixture of intense love and reverence, with awe, and even fear. As 
time went on he became more and more a companion to his children — the 
awe and fear disappeared, and the love and reverence deepened; he was to 
me both father and mother. But, although he recovered his spirits and 
took hold on life again, the tenderness of his memory of his wife never in the 
slightest degree abated. The Congregational meeting-house at Midway was 
eight miles from our plantation. On Sundays the family carriage took us to 
church to attend the morning and afternoon services ; every Sunday, in the 
recess between the services, my father took us boys by the hand, went to the 
graveyard, leaned on the railing of his own plot, gazed in silence on the 
grave of his wife for fifteen or twenty minutes, then turned and walked away 
without a word spoken. This he did every Sunday for twelve years. These 
Sunday visits deeply impressed on me the worthiness of the woman who 
could excite such devotion. It is only in this indirect way, and by what my 
elder sister told me, that I am able to judge of her character. How much she 
impressed herself on my own character and career I cannot say; but I am of 
those who believe that what is most fundamental in character is formed at 
our mother's knee even before the birth of self-consciousness and a distinct 
memory. To such early influences we must add also what I inherited from 
her. My father, Louis LeConte, was by blood a Huguenot, the family having 
come to this country soon after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, in 
1685, and settled in New York, and my father having moved to Liberty 
County about 181 o. My mother was a Puritan maiden, native of the 
Puritan community of Liberty County. In many ways my blood and in- 
heritance were mixed — my father was Norman French, my mother English. 
In religion my father was liberal almost to free-thinking, my mother was 
a Puritan of the Puritans. In intellectual taste my father was almost purely 
scientific; my mother was passionately fond of art, and especially of music. 
During my whole early life until I was ofif to college I lived on a large plan- 
tation far removed from the busy hum of men — it was under such mixed 
inheritance and influences that my own character was moulded. To my 
father I attribute my scientific tastes; to my mother my religious, artistic, 
and philosophic tastes." 

28 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



^XiU ^cCoutC J^tCMCUS. During tlie last two generations the name 
LeConte has been more associated with science in America than with 
any other subject. Guillaume LeConte, who emigrated from France in 
1690, and died in New York in 1720, was one of the most prominent land- 
holders of New Rochelle, New York, but there is no evidence that he was 
in an\' way devoted to science. His great-grandson, Louis LeConte, while 
a student in Columbia College, became an accomplished young botanist, 
and in early life transferred his home from New York to Georgia, where 
he had become possessed of large landed estates in Liberty County. He was 
a man of much independence of character, firm, decided, and energetic. 
Throughout life he retained his fondness for several branches of science. 
Of his family two, whose tastes in boyhood were guided by him, subse- 
quently achieved international reputation, one as a physicist, the other as 
a geologist. 

Ann LeConte, the youngest daughter of Louis LeConte and Ann Quar- 
terman, was born at the plantation home in Liberty County on the 26th of 
March, 1S25. During infancy she was deprived of a mother's care by death. 
Her father's influence was dominant in the direction of her home education 
until his death in 1838. During the years of youth she remained under the 
care of an older sister and had such school training as could" be secured in 
the neighborhood. Her most successful teacher was Alexander H. 
Stephens, who enjoyed the intimate friendship of her father, and whose 
earliest experiences in self-support were obtained in the schoolroom. After 
nearly a lifetime of public service, partly in Congress and partly as Vice- 
President of the Confederacy, he spoke in terms of warm appreciation of his 
apt young pupil. As soon as the requisite preparatory studies had been 
completed she was sent to Macon, where she entered the Wesleyan Female 
College, then recently organized as the first collegiate institution for young 
women in the South. 

After completing her studies at college Miss LeConte was married, at 
the age of eighteen years, to Dr. J. P. Stevens, who had recently begun 
the practice of the medical profession in Liberty County. Two years before 
this, in June, 1841, she had visited New York, to spend a few weeks prior 
to the wedding of her elder brother. Dr. John LeConte, who was married in 
that city. Apart from this visit her entire life was spent in Georgia. There 
was little to make it eventful. As the years rolled on, six children were born, 
and in conjunction with the usual cares of the household these were enough 
to give abundant occupation. 

Adapting herself to the surroundings of country and village life, Mrs. 
Stevens was ever an ardent lover of nature. Her father had made her 
love flowers, and her home was always decorated with them. She was 
accurate, careful, and methodical. Arcliitecture and horticulture were 
equally attractive to her. She planned out every detail of the house erected 
by her husband at Walthourville, in 1855. Not only at home was she the 

29 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



leading spirit, but also in the community, and especially in the Presbyterian 
Church, of which she was a member. Her love of art was manifested not 
only in her mastery of architecture but in music. Possessed of a pure and 
strong soprano voice, she led the choir of her church, where her good 
taste in selection and her general efficiency made her an acknowledged 
guide. Her readiness in acquisition, her power to command, her indefatig- 
able industry and patience in bringing others up toward her standard, 
conduced to make her an undisputed leader. Buried in the countrv. she 
never heard an opera or a grand orchestra, and had no models to follow. 
She thus developed a degree of independence that in a cold nature might 
have been ofifensive ; but in hers it was never so, because tempered by her 
quick perceptions and ready sympathy. 

Mrs. Stevens's mind was clear, vigorous, and incisive. In country 
village life there were few means of mental culture beyond what could be 
afforded by a limited supply of books. The social culture of Liberty County 
was remarkable, but lack of organization made it impossible to secure the 
advantages of city life. The effect of Puritan ancestry was strong, and the 
prevailing theological standards were rigidly defined. If too narrow for 
those who have to-day the advantage of a wider horizon, they did not 
exclude the genuine love of fellowman. The same earnestness which 
marked Mrs. Stevens's intellectual activity was carried out in the perform- 
ance of duty of every kind. 

In 1863 Dr. Stevens transferred his home to Baker County, where he 
had purchased a large plantation. Here the opportunity was presented for 
doing much to ameliorate the condition of those members of a dependent 
race, whose humanity should be recognized even though they were merely 
tillers of the soil. Among them Mrs. Stevens did much home missionary 
work, which at times involved exposure to the weather. In February, 1866, 
such exposure brought on an attack of bronchitis which developed rapidly. 
She died in September of the same 3'ear. 

Mrs. Stevens's mental traits were distinctly such as conduce to success 
in the pursuit of science. Whether her semi-scientific tastes were the result 
of inheritance or of early environment it would be hard to say. The quali- 
ties she manifested would undoubtedly have contributed to success in any 
sphere, irrespective of the special topics of interest to which her attention 
may have been directed. 



30 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



©aroUttC ^XIM J>mltK was bom in Charleston, South Carohna, June 

24, 1808. She was the only daughter of Francis Maguire, of Ireland, and 
Emily Barrett, whom he married in Charleston. Her father was implicated 
in the Irish rebellion of 1798, and fled to this country about the time of the 
execution of Robert Emmet, whose friend he was. 

Caroline had one brother, James F. Maguire, who was two years her 
senior. When he was nine years old and she was seven, and both were 
happy, being blessed with good parents who had prospered, and had a de- 
lightful home that overlooked the bay, there came an awful visitation of 
yellow fever to that city. The parents were among the earliest victims. 
They died the same day, and were hastily buried in the same grave. The 
children were hurriedly taken by good people to different homes, and a few 
days after were sent away under orders, the boy being placed on a vessel 
bound for Boston and the girl upon one bound for Savannah, but neither 
knowing where the other was. The boy was placed in an orphan asylum 
in Boston, and the girl in the Roman Catholic Asylum in Savannah. 

The years rolled on. In course of time a wealthy gentleman by name of 
Burwell. of Randolph. Massachusetts, adopted the boy, educated him and 
placed him in his country house, gave him an interest in his business and in 
due time gave him his only daughter to wife. Later on in life he was sent to 
the State Senate and became the personal friend of Rufus Choate and Daniel 
Webster. But he was not always happy. The loss of his only sister rested 
like a shadow over him. Twice lie had visited Charleston in search of her. 
but found no clew. The fatal epidemic seemed to have changed the popula- 
tion and the survivors knew nothing of her. The beautiful home on the 
bay had been sold by the public administrator, and human vampires had 
gotten the money. 

But the God of the fatherless was overlooking these children. Caro- 
line had been in the asylum three years, and the Mother Superior and the 
sisters were good to her and loved her. for she was as amiable as she was 
beautiful, when one day a very grand lady called in a carriage to choose a 
little girl for a companion. She was the mother of Rev. Dr. Goulding, a 
distinguished Presbyterian divine, and the grandmother of Rev. Frank 
Goulding who wrote that beautiful book called " The Young Marooners." 

This grand lady chose little Caroline and took her home with her to 
Liberty County. Her own children had grown up and married and gone, 
and so Caroline had no youthful companions, and many a night her pillow 
was wet with tears of grief for her parents, and for her long-lost brother — 
not a relative in the wide, wide world. 

When she was about twelve years of age she was sent to a neighboring 
school that was taught by a young man from Vermont, who had already 
acquired a most favorable reputation as a teacher and a gentleman. His 
name was Smith. At once he became interested in Caroline and her pathetic 
history. He wrote to Charleston, but it availed nothing; but his pupil grew 

31 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



into beauty and became his most promising scholar. In a year or two Mrs. 
Goulding died — died suddenly and left no will, and made no provision for 
Caroline, whom she dearly loved and had frequently declared should have a 
liberal portion of her wealth. Caroline suddenly found herself homeless and 
penniless, but she was not friendless. A Mr. Allston lived not far away, 
and his daughters were devoted to the orphan. He at once took her to his 
home, and she continued to go to school with his daughters. The teacher 
boarded there, and was happy to have Caroline nearer to him. 

By and by the new country of North Georgia was opened up to settlers 
by reason of a treaty with the Indians, and Mr. Allston determined to remove 
there. Caroline was only fourteen years old when this removal took place, 
and with teary eyes and choking voice she bade her teacher good-by. He 
had not known until then how dearly he loved the sweet girl, who was just 
budding into womanhood. He made no demonstrations, but secretly 
resolved to seek his own fortune in the new country as soon as the fall session 
had closed. Mr. Allston's purchase was about midway between Decatur 
and Lawrenceville, and one night, while there was music and company in 
the parlor, and Caroline was sitting alone in the broad country piazza, sud- 
denly she gave a scream of delight and as suddenly rushed into a stranger's 
arms as he neared the steps. It was her teacher. 

But this is the old, old story. He had followed her and found her. In 
a short time they were married, and he established another school in the 
vicinity. 

But what of her brother? The writer of this little sketch of a very, very 
dear mother was eight years old. His elder brother was ten when Caroline 
begged her husband to advertise just one more time for her brother. He 
did so, and had it inserted in a Boston paper and many others. It was 
headed in large type, " If James Maguire, whose parents died of fever in 
Charleston in 1815, is still living, he can hear of his sister Caroline by ad- 
dressing the undersigned." 

That James Maguire had a good neighbor who lived across the street, 
and whose name was Wales. He, too, knew the sad history of the parents 
and children, and grieved over it. One Sunday he was not well enough to 
go to church, and as he reclined in gown and slippers upon his couch, and 
was glancing over the Boston paper, he saw and eagerly read the advertise- 
ment. He became intensely excited, and hurried across the street, but 
found his friend had just gone to church with the family. Not thinking of 
his apparel, he hurried to the church, and rushing in at the side door v>-hile 
the man of God was reading the hymn, he held up the paper and exclaimed, 
with crazy delight : " Maguire, I've found your sister. Bless the Lord, I 
have," and he almost fainted from joy. Randolph was but a village then, 
and the preacher and the people all knew how diligently Maguire had sought 
for her. The preacher stopped reading, and hurried to see the paper. 
Maguire read, and re-read, and sat down and wept. What a scene in a 

32 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



church! It was not long before the good man ralHed, and said " Let us 
pray, and thank the Lord for his mercy that endureth forever." 

Suffice it to say that it was not many weeks before that brother and sister 
were in each other's arms. There were no railroads or telegraph then, but 
loving letters were passed across the long way, and they visited, and ex- 
changed visits as long as they lived. Her last days were her best days, and 
oh, what a dear and precious mother she was to me. How gentle, how 
kind, how loving to us all. She sang the sweetest songs, and had the sweet- 
est voice I ever listened to. The sadness of her youth had chastened her 
into gratitude to God for every blessing, Her two sons and four sons-in-law 
were all in the Southern Army. 

" A mother is a mother still. 
The holiest thing alive." 

C. H. Smith. 



33 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



JiUU JtolbVOOll CSowltUug, the mother of the author of " Young 
Marooners," and daughter of Nathan and Susannah Wadhams Holbrook, 
was born at Goshen, Connecticut, August i6, 1786, married to Thos. Gould- 
ing, in Walcott, Connecticut, November 3, 1806, and died in 1878. 

Her father was an inventor. He and his cousin, Ethan Allen, acted 
as guard on shore, during the Boston Tea Party. 

She was brought up and confirmed in the Episcopal Church, but left 
it to be with her husband, who soon after their marriage gave up the 
practice of law and the management of his rice plantations to become a 
Presbyterian clergyman. 

At Midway, Liberty County, Georgia, their son Francis Robert Gould- 
ing was born. In writing " Young Marooners " he has done for the youth 
of the world what DeFoe had done before him. 

There is a slight tinge of romance about the first meeting of Mrs. 
Goulding and her husband. When a brown-eyed girl of eighteen, she went 
to visit a friend. Boarding at the same house was a wealthy young Souther- 
ner, who had gone North to study law. Hearing strange sweet sounds, 
she followed them, and found herself standing at an open door, and before 
her a handsome blue-eyed stranger, who was in some way producing de- 
lightful music from a large black box, which she afterwards learned was a 
newly-invented instrument called a piano. He turned, and saw a lovely 
vision, one which had appeared to him so often in his dreams (day-dreams), 
that he seemed to need no further introduction. 

She grew in grace as her years advanced, and those loved her most 
who knew her best. She had seldom cause to repent of a "lost opportunity." 
Just after the Civil War, she was being driven from the depot in Atlanta, 
Georgia, by a strange hackman, to the home of relatives in the stiburbs. 
One glance at his forbidding countenance aroused grave doubts as to her 
safe arrival at her destination. For some time fear kept her from speaking 
to him on the subject always nearest her heart, but at last, with a silent 
prayer she broached the subject of religion. To her astonishment his surly 
scowl changed to an expression of wistful eagerness, as he said, " No one 
has ever spoken to me of that before ! " Then followed an earnest con- 
versation, and from the warmly, grateful manner in which he bade her 
farewell, there can be little doubt that just then one more star was added to 
her crown. 

The daughter who tenderly cared for her during her last illness, says, 
" I do not know^ much of her history, but I do know that she was one of 
the best women who ever lived. I never knew her to say an unkind word 
to or of any one." 

A grand-daughter in Alabama says, in answer to a letter of inquiry, 
" My recollections of her are all of the most pleasing and helpful character, 
and are among the sweetest of my memory's treasures." And in an obitu- 
ary notice, " May all, like her, simply 'come,' take God at his word, and so 

34 



fined rest for their souls." She requested her daughter, so soon as the 
immortal soul should have left its mortal tabernacle, to kiss her cold lips, 
and say, " I give thee joy, my Mother! " A few lines of a poem from the 
same source gives an idea of the childlike faith and perfect trust of this 
sainted woman. 

" Dear Grandma," we have often said, " Do you ne'er have a doubt 
That when the Book of Life is read, your name may be left out? " 
" My child," she would as oft reply, " I know whom I believe. 
And He has said that they who trust eternal life receive. 
No, no, my child, 'twould be a sin did I distrust my Lord, 
His spirit witnesseth with mine that I believe His word. 
" I am a sinner, saved by grace, through faith in Jesus' name. 
And in the last great day my hope will not be turned to shame. 
I do not dread the gloom of death, to me 'tis Heaven's gate. 
And in the calmness of the tomb, my flesh in hope shall wait." 
" Glory ! Glory ! Glory ! " were the last words she spoke. 
Then gently falling into sleep, her soul in glory woke." 

A singular circumstance occurred some years after her death. Two 
of her warmest friends were a mother and daughter in Columbus, Georgia. 
One night the daughter waked the mother to tell of a remarkable dream. 
It was, that she saw Mrs. Goulding looking radiantly happy, and evidently 
expecting some friend. She asked, " Mother Goulding, why are you so 
happy, and whom are you expecting ? " The answer was, " My daughter 
Lucy will be with me to-night." They looked at the clock, and early next 
morning were roused with the tidings that Lucy had been taken suddenly 
ill, and had died at that hour. 

Mary. 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



35 



7he Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



prances ^lOXjd gaftOlW^ mother of Gen. Francis S. Bartow. Mrs. 
Francis L. Bartow was born in Savannah, November 2, 1792, was a grand- 
daughter of Col. Thomas Lloyd, sent by the British Government to Charles- 
ton, at the time of the colonization of the State. 

After the death of her parents, Francis Stebbins and Rebecca Lloyd, 
she went to live with her step-brother, Judge William Davies, a partner 
with Judge Macpherson Berrien, of Savannah, and lived with him until the 
time of her marriage to Dr. Theodosius Bartow, February 26, 181 2. 

A miniature painting of her at this time shows her to have been a 
beautiful woman with oval face, high forehead encircled in soft curls of 
golden brown, eyes blue-grey shadowed with dark lashes and eyebrows, 
mouth of exquisite outHne, chin delicate in harmony, with the perfect con- 
tour of face, all expressive of loftiness of purpose, high resolve, and gentle- 
ness. This precious relic was lost in a fire of recent date. 

" Few women ever possessed more valiant traits of character, or elicited 
in a higher degree the love of all who came within the circle of her ac- 
quaintance. Like the mother of the Gracchi, no wonder that her gallant off- 
spring ' illustrated Georgia ' so nobly in the halls of legislation, in the forum 
and the tented field. He drew inspiration from a source too pure to admit 
of aught that was sordid or base in human character. 

'■ And the crowning excellence of this gentle being was her Christ- 
like piety. Her religion was a living exemplification of the graces that 
adorn the true followers of the Cross. Not even for the slayers of her 
son could she cherish hate, but died at peace with them and all the world." 

The closest intimacy and more than ordinary love existed between 
mother and son. From his earliest boyhood her gentle influence ever stimu- 
lated him in his high ambition, not merely for selfish or worldly aggrandize- 
ment, but for pure and lofty purposes of life. His first little speech as a child 
will exemplify this. She selected for him the hymn known so well to all : 

" Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve, and press with vigor on;" and 
this hymn made its impress on his grand and beautiful life, which only 
ended when brought back to his mother on his " Spartan shield." 

She parted with him in Savannah when on that memorable day he 
marched off with his gallant young company, " The Oglethorpes," with 
cheers and shouts, triumphal arches wreathed with laurel and palm, flowers 
showered about them, and every demonstration of honor and love from 
a people who honored him and confided their boys to him in absolute trust. 

Hardly two months later, in those same streets at midnight is heard 
the tap of the muffled drum, and the solemn tread of the silent crowd, 
who with saddened hearts and mournful voices echo the words along that 
tell the news : 

"Brave Bartow falls! 
Victory and glory mingle 
With our hero's name." 
36 



After his death Mrs. Bartow returned to her home in Floyd, now en- 
deared to her by many sacred memories, which threw a halo around her 
pathway which, for the rest of her days, lay in shadow, for the light of her 
life, her counsellor and friend, would no more go in and out with words 
of lo\e and peace. 

Extract from a letter written on her birthday: 

'■ Dear Mother: 

" I now take advantage of the closing hours of this day which completes 
your sixtieth year. It has been one of those bland, bright days, more like 
spring than autumn, neither warm nor cold, and I have thought of the 
green hills of Floyd and wished myself there, that I might walk with you 
through the quiet garden, and see the sun as he sets behind the mountains, 
light up the sky with golden radiance. How beautifully does nature present 
to the mind the evening of a well spent life, how few are the dark hours 
between the mellow twilight so full of peace and rest and the glorious re- 
appearance of the rosy beams of morning. 

" For you I cannot wish those many years on earth, which is the custom- 
ary greeting; I know enough of life's meridian, of its fleeting joy, and 
constant cares, to feel that the happiest hour is ' when the soul is freed.' 
But for me my prayer would be that you who first held me up to the light of 
day should close my eyes, a selfish prayer at least, that I may so live, that 
like you some golden light may be reflected in my evening days. God's 
will be done. May He guide you and me and all of us. My heart is with 
you always." 

Extract from Bishop Elliott's Sermon : 

" Mourn for such a life and death as his was ! We cannot mourn and 
even his widowed mother should say with Ormond, ' I would rather have 
my dead son, than any living son in Christendom.' " 

Mrs. Bartow died in 1892, aged eighty. One of four children survive 
her, ^^'ilhelmina Bartow Rees. 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



37 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



Hi'&XtAxxVX "S^ljatt ^tatllC CjOUmitU, mother of Dr. Thomas Da- 
vies Coleman, of Augusta, Georgia. Nearly a hundred years ago, a com- 
munity of spacious homes was established on the South Carolina Heights, 
overlooking the valley of the Savannah, near Augusta, Georgia. This 
group of country seats was called Summer Hill; and early in the century 
the name had become a synonym for the delightsome, luxurious life of the 
affluent Southerner. 

Here, amid whispering pines and carolling birds, Carolina Wyatt Starke 
was born August 20, 1841. She was a fitting type of a summer-time child 
in a world of beauty. Her eyes were the very blue of the skies, and her 
complexion matched the fragile, pink and white woodland flowers. Her 
hair was of those rich auburn tones which poets and painters have assigned 
to the world's famous beauties. The influences of heredity and environ- 
ment were alike most happy for this lovely girl. Her father. Major William 
Wyatt Starke, a wealthy and cultured old-school gentleman, was of the 
Virginia family of Starkes, who, two generations earlier, had settled near 
Abbeville, South Carolina. Her mother, a daughter of Captain Jones, of 
Beaufort, was of a family both aristocratic and opulent. Major Starke had 
first married Miss Jeannette Blakely, of Charleston, and Mrs. Starke's first 
husband was Mr. Thomas Walker Davies, of Georgia. Carolina, the only 
child of their union, was the cherished favorite of the two families of step- 
brothers and sisters. The eldest brother. Col. Pinkney Starke, a profound 
scholar and world-wide traveller, brought back from the Holy Land water 
of the river Jordan with which to baptize the baby sister. This sacred rite 
was performed by the Rev. Mr. Ketchuin, of the Presbyterian Church. 

More than twenty years later, some of this same water was used for the 
christening of her own baby boy — Thomas Davies Coleman. Carolina's 
youthful years were spent on Summer Hill, and in Savannah. 

Before she reached maturity, both her father and mother had died, leav- 
ing her to the loving care of her sister, Harriet Davies Hammond. 

Prosperity and pleasures are often a surer test of the quality of souls 
than are adversities. Through both, this tender girl passed with a sweet- 
ness and strength that was extraordinary. Of a singular purity of heart, she 
believed of others only the best. Indeed she had a fine faculty of discern- 
ing and calling into activity the noblest traits of those about her. The 
gentleness and refinement of her nature were evidenced from her earliest 
childhood. Highly artistic, she was yet of the calmest temperament; and 
was absolutely free from eccentricities and prejudices. 

In music, painting, and modelling she was unusually gifted. In the 
latter art her talents were especially marked. In belles-lettres she was 
thoroughly accomplished. 

Until she was sixteen years of age, her education was intrusted to care- 
fully selected governesses. Then she was sent to New York City to the 
famous Abbott school. After finishing there. Miss Starke returned South 

38 



in June, 1858, to the home of her brotlier-in-law, Gen. M. C. M. Hammond, 
at Athens, Georgia. 

Her entrance into the brilliant social life of that city of culture 
is a happy memory to many who knew her during those brief, bright years 
preceding the outbreak of the Civil War. 

She was a recognized leader of fashion, but no breath of frivolity or 
vanity dimmed the clear mirror of her soul. Because of the rare balance 
of her nature she was equally joyous and devout. No harsh or ungener- 
ous speech was ever heard from her lips. Religion was to her an animating 
essence of thought, speech, and deed. She worshipped God, alike through 
the gladness of her heart, and her goodness to every creature. 

In person and dress she was the embodiment of girlish daintiness and 
womanly elegance. 

There were many and distinguished suitors for her hand. To a lover 
of her girlhood she finally yielded her heart. As children, she and John 
Scott Coleman had seen much of each other; for he came often from his 
home across the Savannah to visit the family of his uncle. Major John Triggs, 
at Selwood, near Summer Hill. 

When about to leave for Philadelphia to begin his medical studies, John 
Coleman declared his love, begging Carolina to wait for him until he should 
return a finished doctor. She was then but fifteen, and wisely urged that 
they were both too young to seriously consider any such question. But, in 
spite of intervening years, and lands, and seas, and other love affairs for 
both of them, fate gave them to each other. 

During the war. General Hammond's family came back to the old home 
in South Carolina. It was here that Dr. Coleman again wooed Miss Starke, 
and with the happy fortune, this time, to win her. They were married from 
the First Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Georgia, April 12, 1864. Two 
years later. May 22, 1866, the fair young wife was taken, leaving the one 
baby boy to bear her sweet life, through his own " noblest-best," to larger 
fulfilment. 

Her grandchildren now cluster about their father's knee, asking to be 
told ■' more of dear Grandmother Carrie Starke." For their sakes, most 
of all, these memories have been gathered from those who knew and loved 
her. 

Her life, so brief, was of such exquisite beauty and graciousness that 
still, across the long, long, silent years, it breathes a fragrance of all the finer 
essences of the gentle, high-bred Southern womanhood of a generation ago, 

A. L. C. 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



39 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



^JtXtVa ^obtnSOU %OaXtS ©Otb. Few ever so beautifully illus- 
trated Christian womanhood as did the subject of this brief memoir. The 
preparation therefore of a fitting tribute to such an one is fraught with 
difficulties which increase as the work progresses. Her character was 
the finest cluster of attractive traits, whether exhibited by the varied de- 
mands of home, of society, or of religion; whether rejoicing in the sunshine 
of prosperity, or walking beneath the shadows of sorrow, for she was sus- 
tained by courage adequate to meet the demands of duty and with a heart 
full of love and sympathy — all because of childlike trust in God's Word for 
guidance and for strength. Her life was such as history delights to place 
before the world for its own excellencies, sustained by a lineage through 
renowned names which, passing down the centuries, have been venerated 
for courage and honor and truth as illustrated by statesmanship, fidelity, 
and heroic deeds. 

Laura Robinson Rootes was born September 20, 1792, and died July 
2T), 1866. She was the fourth child of Thomas Reade and Sarah Battaile 
Rootes, whose home was known as Federal Hill, Fredericksburg, Virginia. 
Thomas Reade Rootes was a distinguished lawyer, several times member 
of the Legislature of Virginia, and within a few years of his death was 
possessed of great wealth. The Rootes family was for several generations 
prominent in Virginia, in social and professional positions. Mrs. Cobb 
was also descended from such Colonial men of note as Col. George Reade, 
who emigrated to Virginia in 1632, and was royal counsellor for many 
years; Captain Nicholas Martin, Captain Robert Higginson, Captain 
Augustine Warner, Col. Miles Cary, Edward Jacqueline, John Smith, of 
" Shooters Hill " — all of whom occupied at various times prominent civil 
and military offices in the colony. Through Col. George Reade and Col. 
William Bernard, Mrs. Cobb was descended from several of the barons who 
wrested the Magna Charta from King John at Runnymede; and by the 
Martian and Battaile lines she traced her ancestry to the Huguenots of 
France. 

At the age of nineteen Laura Robinson Rootes was married to Col. 
John Addison Cobb of Georgia, son of John Cobb of Virginia, and Mildred 
Lewis, daughter of Howell Lewis and Mary Willis_, of Granville County. 
North Carolina. They settled upon his plantations in Jefferson County, 
near Louisville, Georgia, where they remained until removal to Athens 
which became their home the remainder of their lives. On his maternal 
side. Colonel Cobb was descended through the Warners from Col. George 
Reade, who has been mentioned as an ancestor of Mrs. Cobb also. A 
distinguished genealogist says of the Cobb family, " It goes back to within 
a few years of the settlement of Virginia, and might be carried much farther 
back into the history of England. Indeed, the name of the Cobbs is one of 
the ablest and most honorable known, either in our earlier or more recent 
records." 

40 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



They had seven children who reached maturity. The sons were Howell 
Cobb, the well-known statesman of Georgia. Speaker of the United States 
House of Representatives, member of Buchanan's Cabinet, President of 
the First Confederate Congress, and Major-General. C. S. A.; Thomas 
Reade Rootes Cobb, distinguished jurist and author, member of the Con- 
federate Congress, and Brigadier-General, C. S. A., who bravely fell at 
the battle of Fredericksburg; and ]\[ajor John Boswell Cobb, also an officer 
in the C. S. A. 

Mrs. Cobb was a beautiful woman with bright sparkling eyes, animated 
and expressive features and graceful manners. From early youth she had 
difficulty in hearing, but was so prepossessing it appeared not to mar her 
pleasure nor that of her company. She and her husband lived and died 
consistent members of the Baptist Church. Surely she was born pious, for 
she loved religion even from childhood. 

As a writer and conversationalist she possessed remarkable talent. 
Modest in religious life, there were few who equalled her in accurate Bible 
knowledge, and in endeavor to honor its teachings. Prayer was her con- 
stant resort for sustaining grace; love and duty, her guiding stars. In her 
intellectual endowment there was depth and logic of thought, power of 
reasoning, love of truth, command of concise, expressive language, which 
combined rendered her decisions those of wisdom and of righteousness. 
The impress upon the minds and hearts of her children was like engravings 
upon steel, imparting cast to character. It could be seen in their lives, 
their homes and their business. Ah, here was indeed the impress of duty, 
the handwriting of love, the imprint of righteousness, because after all they 
were the leadings and teachings of the Holy Spirit. 

Mrs. Cobb had many painful afflictions. A soul so refined and so 
sanctified could but feel and appreciate grief most acutely, and in like 
proportion that it felt love and joy and peace. The sudden death in 
battle of her son Gen. Thomas R. R. Cobb carried the .sharpest pang 
of sorrow into her trusting soul. " Why is it," she asked on that occa- 
sion, "that my prayers scarcely rise above my head?" The reply was, 
"These are precious groanings which the Spirit sprinkles with the blood of 
Christ and spreads before the throne of grace." She was comforted but 
never recovered from the shock. 

The last words of Jesus — oh, how precious ! — so were the last words 
of this saint. " Impossible to live. I only mind parting with you all ! I 
see — I see," and closing her eyes she softly sank 

" Asleep in Jesus ! blessed sleep. 
From which none ever wakes to weep." 

Jno. C. Whitner. 

41 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



^axrtlia HaCClltClinC ^OOtcS gacTiSOU, mother of Gen. Henry 
R. Jackson, was born at " Federal Hill," near Fredericksburg, Virginia, 
September 28, 1786. Her parents were Thos. Reade Rootes, a distin- 
guished lawyer and member of the House of Delegates, and Sarah Ryng 
Battaile. She was the eldest of five children, and from her earliest years 
must have been the beloved counsellor and helper of the others, judging 
from the devoted respect in which she was held by them throughout their 
lives. Her young womanhood shows evidence of the atTection and elevat- 
ing influence which surrounded her in '" that charming social fireside com- 
fort at ' Federal Hill' " 

The revulsion of religious feeling in the latter part of the last century, 
following the long period of coldness which had preceded it, resulted in 
strict ideas of religious life and rigid self-examination. Many noble char- 
acters were formed in those days, and such was the case in the subject of 
this sketch. Her ardent nature and strong intellectual traits were molded 
into a beautiful character, which was strong to bear the trials and sorrows 
of following years, and which wielded a helpful influence upon all who came 
in contact with her. 

On May 8, 1810, she was married to Howell Cobb, of Georgia, a gentle- 
man many years her senior. He was a captain in the United States army, 
with a commission signed by George Washington, and member of Congress 
in 181 1, when the relations between the United States and England were in 
an embarrassing state. Captain and Mrs. Cobb were on terms of friendship 
with Chief Justice Marshall, Mr. \Vm. H. Crawford, and other bright stars 
which studded the congressional skies in those tr3ung times. 

When Captain Cobb's term in Congress was over they retired to their 
plantation home, near Louisville, Georgia. This extract from one of her 
letters, written at the time of her daughter's anticipated marriage, shows 
the course of conduct Mrs. Cobb pursued upon reaching her new home. " I 
know by experience how readily a young woman can obtain the kindest in- 
terest from her husband's connections by accommodating herself to their 
habits, and treating them affectionately herself. I have in my own case 
found, that although I came a perfect stranger to a distant land, amongst 
those who had perhaps calculated that my husband never would marry, 
that I still could gain their best feelings, and I believe their sincere respect 
and afifection." 

Mrs. Cobb's mother having died, her sisters made their home with her 
in Georgia, and this resulted in the marriage of her sister Sarah to I\Ir. John 
A. Cobb, a younger brother of Captain Cobb. In 1818, Captain Cobb died, 
leaving no children. 

On September 2, 1819, Mrs. Cobb was married to Dr. Henry Jackson, 
an Englishman, professor of philosophy and chemistry in Franklin College, 
and youngest brother of Gen. James Jackson of Revolutionary fame. Dr. 
Jackson was chosen by Mr. Wm. H. Crawford secretary of legation when 

42 



he was sent minister to France in 1812, and remained with Mr. Crawford 
until his return. He then resided at the French Court as charge d'affaires 
until a short time before his marriage. 

A union of congenial tastes was the result of this marriage, and that 
happiness which comes from the communion of two individuals of noble 
character. Their only son, Henry Rootes, was their oldest child, and their 
hopes were centered in him from his cradle. In a letter from Dr. Jackson to 
a nephew in England, he thus speaks of him : " If I am weak about anything 
it is in relation to this boy, my own and only son. I think his natural disposi- 
tion is such as to justify my entertaining every hope of future gratification 
from his complete success." 

Dr. Jackson was attackedwith a strokeof paralysiswhen his son was only 
a boy, and he was never quite strong again. So among his earliest lessons 
the son was taught by his father that he must be the protector of his mother 
and two little sisters, and that lesson he never forgot. Throughout his 
poems, most of which relate to his childhood's home and early associations, 
runs a thread of filial affection, uniting the warm and loving hearts which 
clustered about the fireside at " Halscot." 

This is from a letter from Mrs. Jackson when her son was a colonel in 
the Mexican War: " We are now under much anxiety about our dear absent 
Colonel, for to-morrow is the day specified as the one for the attack on Vera 
Cruz. I endeavor to exercise the confidence that I ought in that power, 
without whose permission no weapon can prosper against him; but the 
mother's heart will tremble for the child who is about to be exposed to an 
imminent danger." Her strong and abiding faith in God was the ruling 
characteristic of her life, which sustained her in the deepest afflictions which 
the human heart can feel, and which was with her when the summons came 
to " Come up higher," when she whispered to her loved ones bending over 
her, '■ If this be death, then it is sweet to die." 



'The Mothers u/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



43 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



J>JlV<lTx ^attltillje ©Obb ^VltltCVfOJ^d, the daughter of Sarah Rob- 
inson Rootes, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, and John Addison Cobb, of 
Georgia, was born March 12, 1818. Her childhood and girlhood were spent 
in Athens, Georgia, at the old homestead not far from the present site of the 
Episcopal church. She was the second daughter of eight children. Her 
education was acquired at the academy, which was the most advanced school 
for girls at that time in Athens. She was remarkable from her earliest 
years for precocity of intellect. When a child of ten she astonished Alex- 
ander H. Stephens, then a student at Franklin College, by her wonderful 
descriptive powers. At sixteen years of age she was calculating eclipses and 
studying calculus. 

On March 23, 1841, she married Williams Rutherford, of Midway, 
Georgia. This was a very happy marriage, and eight children were given 
them to bless and brighten their home. The only son that survived the age 
of infancy was John Cobb Rutherford, who became so noted as a criminal 
lawyer in the State. His reputation in the management of the Woolfolk case 
extended far beyond the limits of his own section, and his inability to clear 
against prejudiced odds one whom he always believed innocent was thought 
to be indirectly the cause of his death. 

Laura Cobb's ancestry was the best on her mother's side; she traced 
her descendants to colonial days. She was descended from Thomas Reade 
Rootes, an eminent lawyer, of Fredericksburg, Virginia. His old home 
Federal Hill still stands. On her father's side she traced her ancestry to 
revolutionary times, and numbered among these ancestors men who fought 
to free their country from England's oppressive rule. 

Williams Rutherford's grandfather, John Rutherford, was a colonel in 
the Revolutionary War, and the rifle that he owned is now in the possession 
of the family. 

The children by this marriage are entitled to greatness by ancestry, and 
some of them have become noted in law, letters, education, or established 
charity. 

Col. John Cobb Rutherford became eminent as a lawyer. His home 
was Macon, Georgia. He died March, 1891, at the age of forty-nine. 

Mrs. Mary Ann Rutherford Lipscomb, now principal of Lucy Cobb 
Institute, Athens, Georgia, president of the Woman's Club, and a member 
of the Press Club, is a woman of marked intellectual ability. 

Miss Mildred Rutherford, author of " English Authors," " American 
Authors," and " French and German Authors," and for fifteen years prin- 
cipal of Lucy Cobb Institute, now lives at her home, " The Villa," in Athens, 
Georgia. 

Mrs. Bessie Rutherford Mell, the founder of the Bessie Mell Industrial 
Home, a beautiful established charity in Athens for helping others to help 
themselves, died October, 1894. 

Mrs. Laura Cobb Hutchins, the youngest daughter, is always found 

44 



foremost in deeds of charity, and all that goes to lift others to higher living. 
No mother in Georgia better fulfilled the duties of a Christian wife and 
mother, a patriotic matron and friend, than did the mother of Colonel 
Rutherford, of Macon. 

During the war between the States she was called with simple reverence 
the " Soldiers' Friend." 

Patriotism and love of humanity seemed interwoven with every fibre 
of her being. The needs of the Confederacy called forth all the energy, 
resources, and invention of her powerful nature. 

A sister of Gen. Howell Cobb and Gen. Thomas R. R. Cobb could not 
be a passive observer of that mighty struggle. As president of that patriotic 
band of women " The Ladies' Aid Society," Mrs. Rutherford's work for the 
Confederate army was far-reaching and invaluable. She had that twin 
virtue of ardent patriotism — heroism. 

When the banner was furled and many returned not, Mrs. Rutherford 
determined that some loving, enduring testimony should be paid to the 
South's sacred dead. She earnestly begun the work of raising the funds to 
erect a monument to the Confederate dead of Athens. To the discourage- 
ments met with on all hands, she made the one quiet resolute reply, " It 
must be done," nor did her efforts cease until the noble monument, telling 
its eloquent story, pointed its snowy column to the sky. 

Mrs. Rutherford was always interested in the welfare of her city, and 
this public spirit had much to do with its advancement. Her pen was ever 
ready in the cause of progress. She had an abiding faith in individual 
power and industry, contending that what had been done could be done, 
and she e.xemplified this doctrine in her own varied achievements. 

The influence of such a woman in the community where she lived can 
never die. Next to the love of God she placed the love of home and country, 
and the firm convictions of such a leader could not fail to mould the thought 
of not only the women, but the men of the community where she lived. 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



45 



foremost in deeds of charity, and all that goes to lift others to higher living. 
No mother in Georgia better fulfilled the duties of a Christian wife and 
mother, a patriotic matron and friend, than did the mother of Colonel 
Rutherford, of Macon. 

During the war between the States she was called with simple reverence 
the " Soldiers' Friend." 

Patriotism and love of humanity seemed interwoven with every fibre 
of her being. The needs of the Confederacy called forth all the energy, 
resources, and invention of her powerful nature. 

A sister of Gen. Howell Cobb and Gen. Thomas R. R. Cobb could not 
be a passive observer of that mighty struggle. As president of that patriotic 
band of women " The Ladies' Aid Society," Mrs. Rutherford's work for the 
Confederate army was far-reaching and invaluable. She had that twin 
virtue of ardent patriotism — heroism. 

When the banner was furled and many returned not, Mrs. Rutherford 
determined that some loving, enduring testimony should be paid to the 
South's sacred dead. She earnestly begun the work of raising the funds to 
erect a monument to the Confederate dead of Athens. To the discourage- 
ments met with on all hands, she made the one quiet resolute reply, " It 
must be done," nor did her efforts cease until the noble monument, telling 
its eloquent story, pointed its snowy column to the sky. 

Mrs. Rutherford was always interested in the welfare of her city, and 
this public spirit had much to do with its advancement. Her pen was ever 
ready in the cause of progress. She had an abiding faith in individual 
power and industry, contending that what had been done could be done, 
and she exemplified this doctrine in her own varied achievements. 

The influence of such a woman in the community where she lived can 
never die. Next to the love of God she placed the love of home and country, 
and the firm convictions of such a leader could not fail to mould the thought 
of not only the women, but the men of the community where she lived. 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



45 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



plilAtXtX I^CWJiS ^OOtCS ©oIjTj. On the twelfth day of November, 
1 82 1, in Louisville, Georgia, was born ^Mildred Lewis Rootes Cobb, destined 
to be one of Georgia's beauties and heiresses, and her most notable coquette. 
Her father was the most prominent citizen of Athens, owner of that large 
portion of the city called Cobham, and a descendant of the illustrious Vir- 
ginia stock that sprung from the Magna Charta barons — the Reades, Ber- 
nards, Warners, and Rootes. This is the end of a long line of stolid English 
gentlemen. We must suppose they were stolid : all Englishmen are. And 
they produced, by a curious trick of nature, many notable people of a 
violently anti-English talent — George Washington, the brothers Cobb, and 
James McNeill Whistler. 

My grandmother's own peculiar talents for coquetry had full swing- 
in her environment. Small, dainty, charmingly pretty, and protected by 
a fine and dazzled, though somewhat alarmed father, she enjoyed that im- 
munity from harm and any criticism known by the daughters of those rich 
autocrats, the Southern landed gentry. Indulged by her parents, indulged 
by her brothers, with no idea of the value of money because she had never 
been without it, and because by the Southern people the discussion of wealth 
was considered vulgar, her whole energy was directed toward the capture 
of masculine hearts and wild escapades with girl friends. The driving of 
spirited horses, the old coachman shut inside the carriage and watching with 
fearful eyes the two slight, muslin-clad figures on the box-seat. It was on 
one such occasion, when the coachman had been cajoled into driving them to 
a forbidden party, that my grandmother was promptly carried home by an 
irate young man — a fellow-student with her brothers at the University — 
and sternly delivered into the hands of her father. This irate young man 
was Luther Judson Glenn, upon whom until that evening she had looked as 
one of her meek and willing slaves. She had successfully taken up his time 
until, in the distractions of trying to circumvent the other six of her seven 
fiances, he lost his until then certain first honor, and graduated in a daze of 
mingled emotions. 

The evening of the stolen party was an epoch. She experienced a new 
sensation. She had met the man who could master her. But this was a 
thing that she did not know. If she had, she could undoubtedly have run 
away. She was so unconscious of it that, when her brother Tom delivered 
to her this portentous speech : " Minnie, decide at once whether you wish 

to marry Luther Glenn or , of Florida, because I will no longer see 

Glenn played with," she dutifully replied (but I have always fancied that a 
little smile must have lurked in her down-cast eyes as she said it), " I will 
marry whom you prefer, Tom." 

They had relinquished the old family home to the eldest son, Howell, 
and in his house my grandmother was married, on April 27, 1842. She was 
very pretty : she assures me that she was very pretty ; and the trousseau well 
became her. 

46 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



In those days a trousseau was a wonderful thing. It came from 
Europe ; and as the Atlantic had not been conquered " Europe " was a far- 
away dream place. In the minds of preoccupied brides the satins, and laces, 
and fans of Paris were hazily linked with the stately pleasure-domes of 
Kubla-Khan, and the sandalwood smells of India. The great boxes, cov- 
ered with foreign labels, were opened by the two Millys — the little white 
bride and the black, adoring, and gaspingly admiring maid. They gazed 
in rapture upon the First Day Gown — the gown that could stand alone. 
They imagined how she would look in the pearl-colored Second Day Gown 
— what she would say to the discarded lovers when they came to the second- 
day reception. They speculated as to whether she could have been more 
bewitching had the Third Day ball gowns been pink instead of blue. But 
always their thoughts returned to the main picture — of my grandmother in 
her white bridal robes, and of the flattering anguish in the hearts of those 
same lovers. 

They had been permitted to adore up to the last minute. The success- 
ful rival was away; and none but the most hard-hearted could have con- 
demned my grandmother to months of the solitude and masculine neglect 
that falls to the lot of an " engaged girl." The invited guests came to what 
they supposed to be one of the usual large balls at the " Cobb place." They 
found it to be a wedding, with a dainty, mocking, frivolous bride, a trium- 
phant groom — painful spectacle for those of the seven who were present. 

One of these luckless ones, the week after, met General Jackson, of 
Savannah, and enthusiastically invited him to be his attendant at his wedding 
on the coming Wednesday. 

" And whom are you to marry? " 

" Miss Mildred Cobb," said the deluded young man. 

" But I have just come from attending Luther Glenn at his marriage to 
Mildred Cobb ! " 

Many years after, when the news came back from Fredericksburg that 
Gen. T. R. R. Cobb and Colonel Glenn had been shot, another of these old 
admirers hastened up from Florida to marry the widow — but Colonel Glenn 
had not died. My grandmother explains all this by saying that she had 
been too compassionate to refuse men who really loved her. 

After the birth of my father, on March 21, 1844; his going off to col- 
lege, when she stood in the big front door and wept, and he came back nine 
times to kiss her good-bye ; and the proud moment when he, a boy of four- 
teen, got his commission on the Stafif of Gen. Howell Cobb, and donned his 
Confederate uniform ; events seem to have dwindled in importance. 

These are not the times of which the little old lady with the white curls 
likes to tell. We have listened to other traditions — traditions of " befo' de 
wah " — that wonderful golden age, when the land flowed with milk and 
honey. We have never read " Uncle Tom's Cabin." My grandmother 
told us it was not true ; and my father's old nurse, Mammy Ann, told us it 

47 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



was written by " cle debbil hisself." We object to Mrs. Stowe because we 
were brought up to object to her. But of all stories, we are most fond of 
the tale of the Bridal Bonnet. 

A Bridal Bonnet in the old days was as necessary at a wedding as the 
maid of honor, and a knowledge of the correct angle at which to pin a veil. 
It was always a white Leghorn poke, with flowers under the brim next the 
hair, a second bunch of flowers on the right side, and ribbons to tie under 
the chin. The fate of my grandmother's bonnet was a tragedy. On the 
wedding journey, which was performed by coach, the horses ran away, over- 
turned the carriage, and in the ensuing spilling of its human freight, this 
poem of a bonnet came in contact with the vulgar red clay of Georgia. My 
Grandfather's head was the other sacrifice. He was badly cut, and uncon- 
scious. But the lamentations of his young wife was over the wreck of the 
bonnet. " Husbands," my grandmother sagely remarked, " were easy to 
get, but a Leghorn poke was rare in the South." 

" What was the color of the flowers on that bonnet, Grandma? " 

" That I don't remember. But I can tell you this, my child : whatever I 
put on was becoming. Girls were prettier then than they are now." 

Her only regret is that she cannot go back and live it over. With the 
experience of added years she has thought of so many things she might 
have done ! 

IsA Gartery Urquhart Glenn. 



48 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



ghOClJJe l^dflittC %il^SCO\\Xhf the mother of Dr. Andrew Adgate 
Lipscomb, distinguished divine, educator, and writer, was born in the city of 
Philadelphia in the year 1791. She was the daughter of Andrew Adgate 
and IMary Westcott. Her ancestors on both her father's and mother's side 
were heroic and cultured people. When Phoebe Adgate was only two years 
of age, what was then called malignant fever, but what is now known to be 
the dreaded yellow fever, scourged the city of Philadelphia. Thousands of 
the citizens fled and thousands fell victims to the disease. On September 12, 
1793. a number of the citizens, who had remained, met in the city hall for 
the purpose of organizing relief committees to care for the sick. The Mayor 
was in the chair, and in response to a call for volunteers to alleviate the 
suffering of the pestilence-stricken community, there were only ten men who 
ofifered their services, Andrew Adgate, the father of Phoebe Adgate, and 
Stephen Girard, the great philanthropist, being two of that number. For 
days and for weeks the fever raged, the committee of ten all the while faith- 
fully discharging their duty. Finally Andrew Adgate and three others of 
the committee contracted the dreadful disease, from which they all died. A 
half century afterward the city council of Philadelphia ordered five hun- 
dred copies of the report of the surviving members of that committee to be 
printed, a copy to be preserved in the archives of the city, and other copies 
to be distributed among the friends and relatives of the self-sacrificing citi- 
zens who ga\e up their own lives in trying to preserve those of their fellow 
citizens. This report was printed on parchment and commemorated the 
noble deeds of the four members of the heroic committee of ten, and is now 
a part of the history of the city of Philadelphia. Phoebe Adgate had the 
fever at the same time that her father was ill with it, and it is told by 
her descendants that she was so desperately ill as to be at one time con- 
sidered dead. Indeed, she was even shrouded for burial when it was dis- 
covered that she was not dead. Her mother, Mary Prescott, the wife of 
Andrew Adgate. was left a young widow at twenty-four years of age with 
three little children. About the year 1795 she removed with them to Alex- 
andria, Virginia, to her father's home. Capt. John Prescott, her father, was 
a native of Cumberland County, New Jersey, and was an officer in the New 
Jersey line during the Revolutionary War. He removed to Alexandria, 
Virginia, where for many years he made his home. It was there in Virginia 
that Phoebe Adgate, his granddaughter, and the mother of Andrew Adgate 
Lipscomb, met her husband, Wm. Corrie Lipscomb. The Lipscombs were 
all Virginians, hence of English stock, the name itself indicating its English 
Norman origin. In Arthur's " Old English Surnames " it appears with its 
derivation. 

In Conan Doyle's pictorial novel, " The White Company," Sir .Arthur 

Lipscomb is mentioned as being at the famed battle of Roncesvalles Pass, 

and he gives as his coat-of-arms " the wolf and the dagger." The crest of the 

Lipscomb family, as stated in heraldry, is a mailed hand clasping an oak 

4 49 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



bough. So far as these things go there is no doubt that all the Lipscombs 
are descended from this original English family. The name itself is so rare 
and significant that no doubt can remain about it. 

Phoebe Adgate had been a society girl in her youth. It is said that 
the burning of the Richmond theatre, when Poe's father with so many others 
perished, first led her to consider her soul's salvation. Subsequently, while 
on the ball-room floor, she determined to renounce the world and the things 
of the world, and devote her life to the service of God. She joined the 
Episcopal Church, but after her marriage she united herself with the Church 
of her husband, the Methodist Protestant Church, which he aided in found- 
ing. Such a mother, with queenly blood, superior intellect and extraordinary 
heart culture, could not fail to influence the character of her son. From 
her he inherited many of the qualities of mind and heart that so distinguished 
him above his fellows. If this be a law of heredity that the boy inherits more 
the traits of character from his mother, then surely Phoebe Adgate, the 
mother of Andrew Adgate Lipscomb, must have been a woman of most 
remarkable character. 



SO 

















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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ .^^^fe^^^^ 










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mik '^^ 


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^^^^^H 






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M 




MILDRED LEWIS COBB JACKSON 



The Mothers <?/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



IJXlldVCd XciUlS Cobb gltchSOU, mother of James Jackson, Chief 
Justice of (jeorgia, and daughter of John Cobb and Mildred Lewis was 
born in Georgia in 1790, in that part of Washington County now known 
as Jettersi.n county. In a disastrous fire the family records were burned, 
so that the monili and day of her birth are unknown. 

It is a matter of pride to her descendants that her hneage can be traced 
to the same progenitor as Gen. George "Washington, and Gen. Robert E. 
Lee. This progenitor was George Reade, Secretary, and at one time Acting 
Governor of the Colony of Virginia, and member of the Royal Council, 
whose daughter J\Iildred married Augustin Warner. Elizabeth, third 
daughter of Mildred Reade and Augustin Warner, married Col. John Lewis, 
whose son Charles married Mary Howell. Howell Lewis, son of Charles 
and Mary Howell, married Mary Willis, daughter of Col. Henry Willis, 
founder of Fredericksburg, Alildred Lewis, daughter of Howell Lewis 
and Mary Willis, married John Cobb; and their daughter, bearing her 
mother's maiden name, Mildred Lewis, is the subject of this sketch. 

John Cobb was a prominent man in that section of the State, being a 
landed proprietor of some extent. He was also a surveyor, and assisted in 
the subsequent division of Washington County. From records on file in 
the State Capitol he is found to have been a man of some wealth : for these 
records show that he deeded to his children much land and other property. 

October 8, 1808, at the age of eighteen, Mildred married William Henry 
Jackson, the eldest son of Governor James Jackson of Georgia. The j'oung 
couple removed to Savannah, btit in a short time returned to Jefiferson 
County, where they took possession of a farm near Louisville, then the 
capital of the State. 

Here many children were born to them, and here, too, death claimed 
so many of their flock that the mother's life was permanently saddened. 
Naturally buoyant, her presence was constant sunshine until these clouds 
of sorrow dimmed the brightness. 

She was a woman of recognized beauty, her husband proudly telling 
that on one occasion the palm was awarded her as the most beautiful young 
woman in Georgia. 

She was a woman of fine intelligence, and in her motherhood left an 
unfading impress on her children. 

She was an earnest Christian, though a timid one, having a great fear 
of death, an hereditary, physical fear common to her family. She often 
prayed for dehverance from this fear, and her son thought the manner of 
her death an answer to this prayer. 

One March morning in 1853, as she was making her toilet, her maid 
approached to further assist, as was her custom, when Mrs. Jackson fell 
back on her pillow — dead. There was no fear, no dread, for the messenger 
was swift, and God, in mercy, spared that gentle heart the ordeal it had long 
shrunk from. 



51 



y^ifM others o/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



A beautiful tribute is paid Mrs. Jackson by the son whose illustrious 
services to his State call forth this life-sketch of his mother. In an obituary 
notice published in 1853, he says: 

" In the circle of her own family and friends, she exemplified the graces 
of the true Christian. Her piety was simple and unobtrusive. To attend 
the bed of sickness, to smooth the pillow of sorrow, to hand down the old and 
decrepit gently to the grave^ — these were her offices of Christian mercy and 
love. To her husband and her children she was all in all, and if there was 
a blemish on her pure and spotless character as a Christian, it was her over- 
weening anxiety and love for them ; that almost approached idolatry. 

" She passed from time to eternity suddenly, and without a struggle. 
Death seemed to have wiped out every wrinkle that time had made on her 
countenance, and left her face as sweet and placid as a baby asleep. 

" This last outpouring of love to the memory of the purest, the best, 
the fondest, the most forbearing mother that ever blest a wayward child 
flows from the heart of her only son, and though the portrait has been drawn 
by tlie hand of affection, all who knew her will recognize it as marked with 
the pencil of tnitli." 



58 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



IplavttHl ®Ot))j CSvatlt, the mother of Capt. WilHam D. Grant. 
Those who liave read the sketch of Mrs. Mildred Lewis Cobb Jackson, will 
not be surprised to see her beautiful traits of character reappearing in her 
daughter, Mrs. Martha Cobb Grant, the mother of Capt. W. D. Grant, of 
Atlanta, a financier widely known, and a gentleman of broad culture. The 
city where he dwells points with pride to the evidences of his success, for 
in every quarter lofty buildings planned through his agency and erected by 
ills means, attest his faith in the progress and growth of Atlanta, the capital 
city of Georgia. It is fitting that a great-grandson of that loyal Georgian, 
James Jackson, who said that when he died, Georgia would be found written 
on his heart, should invest his wealth in his native State, and eschewing the 
temptation of bonds and stocks, should turn the red clay of his own State 
into the red gold of currency. 

To his mother, Captain Grant owes many of the elements of character 
which led to his success, and her tender, loving heart would especially ap- 
preciate owing this sketch of herself to the fact that she was his mother. 

Martha Cobb, the daughter of William Henry and Mildred Lewis Cobb 
Jackson, was the eldest of their children to reach maturity. She was born 
in JefTerson County, Georgia, January 29, 1816. Here her early childhood 
was passed, and then the family moved to Athens, Georgia, whither Col. 
John A. Cobb, a brother of Mrs. Jackson, had preceded them. 

In Athens in her early girlhood. Miss Jackson met John T. Grant, 
whose father, Daniel Grant, was a prosperous and prominent citizen of the 
town. The acquaintance ripened into love, and marriage soon followed. 
Those present at the wedding often averred that Mr. Grant and his bride 
were the handsomest couple ever seen. And, verily, to those who knew 
them when years had left their mark upon both, it was a statement easily 
credited. 

Everything smiled upon the union, the groom's father — as was the 
custom in those days — lending substanial aid to his son. In a short time, 
however, Mr. Daniel Grant suffered a reverse of fortune immediately affect- 
ing his children also. Mr. and Mrs. John Grant bravely met this change 
of fortune, the young wife cheerfully assuming her portion of the ensuing 
burdens. Her husband was wont to say that he owed his rapidly acquired 
fortune as much to her thrift and energy as to his own financial ability. 

Three children came to brighten their home, but only one survived, 
William Daniel Grant. LTpon this only son were centred the affections and 
hopes of both father and mother, and that this love was wise in its training, 
the career of the son bears ample testimony. 

The grief that Mrs. Grant experienced in losing her children affected 
her health, and for fifty years pain was almost a daily companion. Her 
endurance, however, was marvellous, and her courage unquestioned. Her 
husband, whose large business contracts covered several States, necessarily 
left her much alone. In her beautiful country-place in Walton County, 

53 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



where the white columns of a stately mansion looked down upon the ter- 
raced yard, gay with flowers of every hue, she passed the years of the Civil 
War, alone the greater portion of the time. For, her son at the head of a 
company raised and equipped by himself, and her husband engaged in a 
business that required his constant personal supervision, the entire control 
of the large plantation with its many servants was in her hands. Never 
could the vv'ords, " she looketh well to the ways of her household," be better 
applied than to her. Undismayed by the approach of Sherman's army, and 
the consequent raids in her own neighborhood, she held in her firm hands 
the control of many dependent human beings unassisted by the presence 
of a single white person. 

After the war. Colonel Grant suffered the reverses of fortune which 
came to every materia! interest of the South. Not only was his business 
ruined, but nearly all the property his years of toil and industry had acquired, 
had been swept away. The country place in Walton and a beautiful mansion 
in Athens had been saved, but beyond them he had little to commence anew 
the work of retrieving his fallen fortune. Again his wife proved the value 
of the God-given helpmeet, and again fortune smiled upon pluck and in- 
dustry. 

The son, now making great strides in the march to wealth, was now 
married, and was living in his own home in Atlanta, whither his parents, 
disposing of their property elsewhere, followed him and resided with him, 
while their own handsome mansion was in progress of erection. 

When this was completed, it became the scene of some of the most lavish 
hospitality ever seen in Atlanta. Mrs. Grant was a charming hostess, and 
many remember her soft, silvery hair and shining dark eyes as she greeted 
each guest with true Southern cordiality. 

In this home, just opposite that of her son, where her loved ones en- 
joyed the privilege of daily visit to her, she passed the remainder of her life. 

She rarely left her home, for she was a prisoner to pain for many years. 
" And yet," says " Emel Jay," her niece, who knew and loved her, " until the 
last few weeks of her life, when reason's light seemed to flicker under the on- 
rush of disease, what a bright prisoner she always was! the clear, beautiful, 
kindly eyes looking out from the pale face in beaming welcome to all who 
sought her; the delicate form seated always in welcoming attitude in the big 
chair by the window, as she watched for the coming of those who loved her 
best, and who never failed her. 

" But besides her immediate family, she had many visitors. Her quick, 
clear mind feeding constantly on books and papers that made her conversant 
with the happenings and thought of the outside world ; her striking individu- 
ality of speech and manner that was charmingly her own ; all made her com- 
panionship a delight. 

" But the chief magnet that drew that circle of friends about her was 
the warm sympathy of her nature. She was interested in whatever apper- 

54 



tained to those she cared for. No matter how trivial the plaint, it had ever 
a loving listener in her. 

" Hers was indeed a loyal heart. With her reason vanished in pale 
annihilation under the radiancy of love. She could only see the best and 
brightest side of her dear ones, nor would she believe there was any other 
side to see, and the consciousness of this faith helped those who were close 
to her to live up to the high standard of her belief. 

" Her love was as unexacting as it was loyal. It was perfectly unselfish. 
Moreover, it was helpful, reaching out in many a kindly, generous ministry, 
unguessed by the world at large. 

" Such love cannot leave the earth, and so, when on September 26, 
1893, the ' silver cord was loosed,' and the spirit set free, this love ac- 
quired a double life, one which lives above, throughout a shining eternity, 
and the other which still continues to live here on earth in an abiding 
influence, not only upon those whose hearts and minds came into im- 
mediate contact with it, but also upon those who secondarily, but incal 
culably, will feel its benediction forever." 



the Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



55 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



PCaliWtla %t\yiiS W&L\\\Xt geUUiWQ. it was an axiom of the long 
ago that a gentlewoman's name should appear but twice in print : when she 
married, and when she died. There is no proof that this was the creed of 
Mrs. Benning and her kindred, but certain it is that no published paragraph 
of which she is the heroine has rewarded the most diligent search. 

The family Bible records her birth, April i8, 1789. This was in Colum- 
bia County, three years after her parents came to Georgia. 

With four brothers she was the only daughter, the light of the house, 
the belle of the county. She was tall and stately, with large blue eyes, rip- 
pling brown hair, soft, white hands, and a still softer voice, abeit one to 
command. 

Her father was Capt. Richard P. White, of Hanover County, Virginia, 
a veteran of the Revolution, a planter, first in Virginia, afterward in Georgia. 
Her mother was Mary Meriwether, one of the Lewis-Meriwether Clan, 
which has been omnipresent in every struggle of this country, whether civil 
or military. 

June 8, 1809, at the age of twenty, she was married to Pleasant Moon 
[Moohn] Benning, a planter of her native county. 

A negro melody gives the name of their young mistress to a song- 
game. Many moonlit summer Saturday nights have discovered her grand- 
children seated on the steps of their father's plantation residence, raptur- 
ously watching the negroes from the quarter playing and singing, their 
mellow voices vibrating in harmony with the rh}thm of the Chattahoochee 
Shoals, just under the hill. 

Hands all around, one in the ring, slowly shufifiing, and chanting these 
words : 

" Come er trippin' downstairs. Miss Malindy, 
Come er trippin' downstairs, Miss Malindy, 
Come er trippin' downstairs, wid yer true love by yer side. 
You on yer way ter Shiloh." * 

" Oh, fare you well. Miss Malindy, 
Oh, fare you well, Miss Malindy, 
Oh, fare you well, an' er, do fare you well. 
You on yer way ter Shiloh." 

" What you reckon yer mother say, Miss Malindy? 
Wliat you reckon yer mother say, Miss Malindy? 
What you reckon yer mother say, wid yer true love by yer side? 
You on yer way ter Shiloh." 

" Oh, fare you w'ell. Miss Malindy, 
Oh, fare you well. Miss Malindy, 
Oh, fare you well, an' er, do fare you well, 
You on yer way ter Shiloh." 

* Country Church. 
56 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 

Some of the youngsters wondered if " grandma did run awa}' with '^^ 

grandpa, if she had on caps, and if her mamma was awful mad with her." The 
investigations of maturer years disclosed the fact that the marriage was 
solemnized with the sanction of the family, the church, and the State. 

In 1832, Mr. Benning removed to Harris County, settling just below 
the " Mountain." Eleven children were born. Of these only four lived to 
maturity, viz., Henry Lewis, who married Mary Howard, only daughter of 
Col. Seaborn Jones, M.C., of Columbus; Richard Edwin, married Frances 
Simpson; Caroline Matilda, married Mr. B. Y. Martin; Augusta Palmyra, 
married Madison Lewis Patterson, Esq. With the exception of Edwin all 
resided in Columbus. Mr. Benning died in 1845. After the marriage of 
Augusta, Mrs. Benning lived with her until the death of Caroline, when she 
went to Mr. Martin's, where she stayed until his death, which followed in a 
few months. She then returned to Mr. Patterson's, where she died, June 
24, 1864. 

In speech she was somewhat reserved. Neither did she confide to a 
journal her youthful pranks, girlish dreams, wedded happiness, maternal 
joys and griefs, or widowed loneliness. Mistress, by right of birth, of up- 
wards of a hundred slaves, she commanded their love and obedience. 

The story of Queen illustrates the attitude of herself and her family 
toward their dusky subjects. To settle an estate Queen was sold. Some 
years subsequently she begged to be repurchased. It was done. Her hus- 
band belonged to another family. His owners decided to remove from 
Harris and of course to take Primus, Queen's husband. She now urged 
her master to sell her that they might not be separated. This wish was 
also granted. Years after, after the death of Mr. and Mrs. Benning, after 
the Civil \\'ar and emancipation, Queen and Primus lived in Columbus in the 
greatest strife. She quarrelled with her relations, repudiated her race, and 
clung like a barnacle to the family of her dead owners. Woe to " Marse 
Henry's gals " if they failed to show her what she considered due attention. 
She " nussed dey pa," and her angry voice could be heard for blocks, scold- 
ing them for " leffin' her 'long er dat low-down, one-legged, no nation, 
quarter-loon, yaller nigger, Primus." It mattered not a jot to Queen that 
these young ladies were unconscious of her existence until after the war. 
She " gwine tell dey An' Gusty." 

There is an exact science which proves the unknown quantity by the 
known. According to its reasoning, and judging by the men of her race, a 
great soldier, a great statesman, or a great jurist was embodied in the 
womanly personality of Mrs. Benning. Her son is on the records of the 
State University as honor graduate. In civil life he was judge, in military, 
general. Two brothers, Clement and Nicolas, were soldiers in the W^ar of 
1812, Clement dying in the service. Her father was a Revolutionary 
captain. His young brother, William, was mortally wounded at Brandy- 
wine. Her ancestors, the Meriwethers, Lewises, Warners, Reades, and 

57 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



Martians helped to lay the foundations of the Repubhc. Martian was 
among the first to revoh against the tyranny of the royal governor. His- 
toric Yorktown is located on what was originally his land grant. There, 
after the lapse of a century and a half, his great-great-grandson, George 
Washington, received the submission of royalty through its commander-in- 
chief. Lord Cornwallis. Martian's daughter, Elizabeth, married George 
Reade, Deputy-Governor and Royal Councillor of Virginia. 

Through his mother, Reade was descended from Sir Edward Dymock, 
hereditary champion of England. Mrs. Benning was his great-great-great- 
great-granddaughter. In America her descendants may be members of the 
Sons of the Revolution, Daughters of the Revolution, Society of Colonial 
Wars, Colonial Dames, Order of the Crown, etc., etc. 

In England, other branches of the Dymock family failing male heirs, 
they would be the hereditary champions. Had such been the case at the 
time of the coronation of Queen Victoria, Henry Lewis Benning would have 
ofificiated. Superbly mounted, he would have thrown down the gauntlet, 
and hurled defiance at all who should dispute her Majesty's sovereignty of 
the vast empire of the British. 



58 



The Mothers of 
Some 

Distinguished 
Georgians 



J»ItraH glixa ^OpC gjtWOtU was born on the plantation' of her 
father, ]\liddleton Pope, in Oglethorpe County, Georgia, on the 17111 day 
of October, 1821. She was married to David Crenshaw Barrow, October 
23, 1838. She died September 13, 1855. 

In her early childhood she began to give evidence of uncommon 
strength of character. Even at this early age, she showed determination 
and fixedness of purpose, and a high and noble spirit. Her parents were 
people of large means, and she was an only child. Under ordinary circum- 
stances, this would naturally tend to make a capricious and self-indulgent 
character. On the contrary, however, in her case, it only seemed to steady 
and solidify her strong individuality. Idolized by both her parents, and 
surrounded by very large family connections, with all of whom she was a 
great favorite, she went through life without giving any evidence at all that 
flattery or attention or favors had ever disturbed the even tenor of her way. 
She was not, however, a sombre character; on the contrary, she was full of 
life, and entered joyously into all the pleasures of her station. 

After she became the mother of children, although she governed with 
a firm hand, she nevertheless freely entered into all their pleasures and re- 
creations. When her rules were violated, she did not fail to punish in 
moderation. Siie did not think children ought to be severely punished at one 
time, and allowed to go unpunished at another. In bringing up her children, 
her rule was, that it was the certainty of punishment and not the severity of 
it, which taught obedience to children. 

As a wife and daughter she was most unselfish and devoted. 

Perhaps every one who knew her would unite in the statement, that 
her most prominent characteristic was conscientiousness. Absolutely truth- 
ful at all times, she never permitted herself, by word or act, to swerve one 
inch from the line of conduct which she had settled upon as the correct one. 

While her work in her church was quiet and unostentatious, still she was 
unusually liberal in the support of the ministry, and all church charities 
besides; in this, however, her rule was, never to let her left hand know what 
her right hand did. 

Another striking peculiarity of hers was her self-control. It was a 
strong and imperious nature which she undertook to hold in subjection when 
she set herself to the task of self-control. Naturally, she had what in com- 
mon language is called a high temper, but she succeeded in disciplining her- 
self until she had it under almost complete control. She was absolutely 
destitute of fear, although unusually gentle and soft in her voice and man- 
ners. From her earliest childhood, till she ceased to breathe, she never 
showed any fear of death or anything else. 

Her father was Middleton Pope of Oglethorpe County. Her grand- 
father was Henry Augustine Pope of the same place. Her great-grandfather 
was John Pope of Wilkes County, and her great-great-grandfather was 
Nathaniel Pope of Virginia. 

59 



T'^*? Mothers <7/" 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 

Her mother was Lucy Hopson Lumpkin, who was a daughter of 
Governor Wilson Lumpkin, of Athens; he was a son of John Lumpkin, Esq., 
of Ogletiiorpe County. 

The subject of this sketch hes buried in the family graveyard in Ogle- 
thorpe County, on the place where she was born, and which has been in her 
family since 1796, and which still belongs to one of her children. In the 
same graveyard are her father and mother, her grandfather and grand- 
mother. 

She was the mother of nine children, Middleton Pope, James, Thomas 
Augustine, Lucy Pope, Clara Elizabeth, Ella Patience, Benjamin White, 
David Crenshaw, and Henry Walker. Of these all lived to majority, but only 
three are now living, Pope, Ella, and David. 



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ANN V. DU BIGNON 





The Mothers o/" 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



J^tm '^. dU glgWOW, tlie mother of Hon. Fleming G. du Bignon, of 
Georgia, is a woman of remarkable individuality and decided force of 
character. Full of years, yet with keen intellect and cultured mind that is 
fully alive to all passing events, her heart full of sympathy, and always loyal 
to her friends, she is to-day a splendid type of the ante-bellum Southern 
lady. She resides at her country home, Woodville, about six miles from 
Milledgeville, once the capital of Georgia. In 1825, while a child two years 
of age, she was brought to this home by her father, the Hon. Seaton Grant- 
land, who purchased it from Gov. John Clark, and here she has resided ever 
since. W'oodville is one of those old-fashioned, comfortable, Southern 
homes situated in an immense grove of original forest trees. Here her 
happy girlhood days w^ere passed with one brother and sister, their mother 
having died while she was yet young. It was here that she was married in 
1844 to Col. Charles du Bignon, of Jekyl Island, then a member of the Legis- 
lature from the county of Glynn. It is here that her five children were born 
and spent their childhood days. Hallowed as it is by so many sacred asso- 
ciations, small wonder that she loves and clings to it, and is never happier 
than when at home, attending to her household duties and managing her 
large estate of three thousand acres which adjoins it. It is a unique home 
kept up in the same fashion of the ante-bellum Southern homes. Until 
within the last few years when death and time removed them, she was 
served by the same grayhaired butler, and gardener, and household servants 
who had ministered to her earliest wants, and attended her father before her. 
Even on the old plantation very few of the old slaves left, but remained, and 
the lands are tended and cultivated by them to-day or by those who are their 
descendants. They are never happier than w'hen obliging " Old Miss," as 
they all affectionately term her, for they well know^ that in all their trials and 
sorrows, she is their best and only friend. They not only love her but are 
proud of her, while she commands their respect. 

Her father, the Hon. Seaton Grantland, was a Virginian by birth, and 
was co-editor, when a young man, with Mr. Ritchie of the old Richmond 
" Enquirer." While yet young, he sold out his interests in that paper and 
removed to Milledgeville, Georgia. Here he established " The Recorder," 
which was a power in the land at that day, and gave tone and color to politics 
throughout the State. Mr. Grantland, while yet young, was sent twice as a 
representative of Georgia to the lower House of Congress. He was always 
active in politics, yet after this, he turned his attention to material things; 
he accumulated one of the largest fortunes in the State. Even in 1866. 
when he died, and the labors of years were swept away by the chances of 
war, the remnant of his estate was appraised at a valuation of over seven 
hundred thousand dollars. Mrs. du Bignon has doubtless inherited much 
of her father's character and executive ability. Since her father's and 
husband's death she has had the management of her afifairs in her own hands. 
No one would believe, from her appearance, that she was born in 1823. 

61 



'The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



When Milledgeville was the capital of the State it was indeed a gay 
place, and during the sessions of the Legislature there would flock within her 
gates the beauty and chivalry of the whole State. Distinguished citizens 
from abroad would come, and were frequent guests at the hospitable board 
of Col. Grantland, where Mrs. du Bignon would preside with queenly grace 
and dignity. She has made many friends throughout the State. She has 
always taken a lively interest in politics, education, and whatever is for the 
best interests and advancement of the people. She has had her share of 
the joys and sorrows of life. The death of her father and husband brought 
great sorrow to her heart — and then the loss of her eldest son, Charlie, who 
died a soldier at the age of nineteen years, in the army of the Confederate 
States. Of the five children that were born there are three still living. 
Her only daughter, Catherine, is the wife of General Sorrel, of Savannah, 
Georgia. He conunanded a brigade in Lee's army, and was famous as 
Longstreet's chief of stafif. The youngest son, Cristopher P., resides with 
his mother at Woodville. Her remaining son, the Hon. Fleming G. du 
Bignon, inherits both his grandfather's and mother's intellect and executive 
ability. He married the daughter of Col. Charles Lamar, and has one son 
and three daughters. As a lawyer and statesman he has won proud dis- 
tinction among his fellows. He, like his mother, has many friends to whom 
he is ever loyal. No wonder that with such associations and environments 
he should develop into the noble and useful man that he is. Young in years, 
his State has heaped many honors on his brow. But she has yet other and 
brighter things in store for him. 



62 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 

2|lHV0ilVCt <6vlCV J»tcphCUS^ mother of Alexander Hamilton Steph- '^ 

ens. Little can be said of the mother of Alexander H. Stephens. She 

died in the year 1812, nearly a century ago; all of her contemporaries are 

dead, and records and traditions concerning her are exceedingly scant. 

Before her marriage she was Margaret Grier, a daughter of Aaron Grier 

and a sister of Robert Grier the almanac maker. The Griers originally came 

from the north of Ireland, and settled in Pennsylvania. From two brothers, 

Robert and Thomas, there sprang two branches of the Grier family. From 

one of these the late Justice R. C. Grier of the Supreme Court of the United 

States was descended; from the other branch, which came to Georgia about 

1769, came ^^largaret Grier, the mother of Alexander Stephens. She lived 

and died in that part of Wilkes County, Georgia, now known as Talliaferro 

County, and is buried by the side of her husband, Andrew Baskins Stephens, 

in the Stephens' family burying ground at the old " Stephens Place," about 

two miles from Crawfordville, in Talliaferro County. Upon her tombstone 

is the following inscription: 

" In memory of 
" Margaret Grier Stephens. 

'■ She was the first wife of Andrew B. Stephens, and was distinguished 
in her sphere of life for beauty of person, vigor of intellect, and amenity of 
manners. Her earthly career was closed on the 12th of May, 1812, in the 
twenty-sixth year of her age." 

Thus it appears that she departed this life in the bloom of youth, just 
upon the threshold of young womanhood, leaving behind her young and 
helpless little ones, who needed the guiding hand and protecting care of a 
mother. The youngest of these was Alexander, a helpless babe, who could 
not lisp his mother's name, and who grew to manhood with no recollection 
of his mother's face, and without the blessing of a mother's love. While 
she had no influence in motilding and shaping the character of her distin- 
guished son, yet many of her noble traits were possessed by him. Thus this 
woman of the quiet and lonely plantation of a century ago has, through the 
medium of Alexander H. Stephens, left an indelible impress upon the Na- 
tion's history. Who knows how much of the philanthropic spirit which 
prompted him to educate scores of young Georgians who have gone forth 
and exerted their influence in the various vocations was due to her; who 
knows how much of the superb intellectual powers which shone forth in his 
great speech in Congress on '" Georgia and Ohio again " was obtained from 
her; who knows how much of the prophetic wisdom displayed by him when 
he, with so much foresight and sagacity, warned his countrymen against the 
evils of secession was derived from her; and lastly who knows how much of 
that sublime courage was hers which is contained in that grand and noble 
utterance : " I am afraid of nothing on earth, or above the earth, or under the 
earth, except to do wrong. The path of duty I shall ever endeavor to travel, 
fearing no evil, and dreading no consequences " ? 

63 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



It is said that Margaret Grier Stephens was a woman of strong intel- 
lectuaHty, independent in thought, amiable and cheerful in disposition, de- 
voted to domestic pursuits, and possessing unobtrusive, elevated piety. 

Besides Alexander H. she had two children who reached maturity. 
They were Mary, who died in early life, and Aaron Grier, a most estimable 
man, who died in 1843, ^^ thirty-four years of age. 

The woman whom Alexander Stephens knew as mother was his step- 
mother, Matilda Lindsay Stephens, to whom his father, Andrew B. Stephens, 
was married after the death of his first wife, Margaret. She assumed and 
discharged all of the duties of a mother until her death in 1826. when Alex- 
ander, the youngest of her step-children, was about fourteen years of age. 
As a step-mother she was loving, devoted, and kind, and must have had a 
wholesome influence over all of the little ones under her care, as the char- 
acters of all of her children and step-children seem to attest. 



64 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



l^lltllttll glutlSLiy Stephens, motlier of Linton Stephens. Ma- 
tilda Lindsay Stephens, the second wife of Anth-ew B. Stephens, was the 
mother of several children, of whom three lived to maturity : John Lindsay 
Stephens, a prominent lawyer of La Grange, Georgia, who died in 1856. at 
the age of forty-one years; Catherine, who married a Greer; and Linton 
Stephens, the great lawyer and Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, 
who died in 1872, at forty-nine years of age, between whom and his half- 
brother Alexander there existed such beautiful brotherly love and devotion. 

She was of Scotch-Irish stock — that splendid combination of the sturdy 
conservative Scot blended with the noble enthusiasm and emotional nature 
of the Irish — a race which for centuries has been characterized by all the 
sterling qualities of head and heart, of which she was a typical representative. 
She was a woman of marked character, unpretentious and plain, possess- 
ing all of the domestic virtues, and de\-oted to her home and fireside. As 
is said of her by Jas. D. Waddell in his biographical sketch of Linton 
Stephens, " the basis of her intellectual character was good sense; the basis 
of her moral character was truth; her manners were dignified; her disposition 
was quiet and cheerful ; and in all the relations of social life she was ex- 
emplar}' and amiable." 

Her father was Col. John Lindsay of that part of Wilkes County, 
Georgia, now in Taliaferro County; her mother's maiden name was Clarissa 
Bullark. Colonel Lindsay was a soldier of the American Revolution, and 
was known as " Old Silver-fist " Lindsay, from the fact that he, having 
lost his hand in battle, wore a silver covering over the stump. He is de- 
scribed as a man of " strong mind, sterling honesty, unbending will, strong 
passions, ardent in friendship, implacable in hate, fond of good cheer, frank, 
fearless, and generous to a fault." Many of these qualities were inherited by 
his daughter, Matilda, and transmitted to her children. 

She was born the 31st day of January, 1789, and died the 14th day of 
May, 1826, at the age of thirty-seven years. At the time of her death Linton, 
the youngest of her children, was not quite three years of age. The impres- 
sion she made upon his baby mind cannot be better expressed than in his 
own words describing one of his childish day-dreams, when a little boy, 
sitting in a swing one morning after his mother's death : " Father, brothers, 
and sisters rose up before my eager eyes, but my deepest interest was cen- 
tred in the tall form of a ^i'omon, still young and handsome, moving with 
a sedate grace, which bespoke the very sweetness of dignity, and selecting 
for her walk the very sweetest spots, with an unerring instinct that told of a 
heart at once deeply loving and deeply hallozccd. She seemed to cast bright 
and hopeful gleams towards the ' new house ' rising unfinished from a 
clump of trees on the brow of a gentle slope. She had laid away some of 
her darlings among the cedars in the garden; but she was now beginning to 
emerge froin the darker shades of poverty, and was about to secure a better 
house, a sweeter home, for the dear ones who were left to her love. 
5 65 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 

" But ah! the ' new house ' was destined to remain unfinished forever! 
The cedars in the garden ! The lovely form pointed me to the cedars in the 
garden, and then faded from my view. I followed her pointing, and stood 
solitary and desolate among the cedars in the garden ! Amid their deep, 
dark shade was a grave — her grave, already grass-grown from age ! Lilies — 
sweet white lilies — were bending over it, and dropping their fragrance upon 
the sacred dust. 

" The boy in the swing uttered a low, deep moan, and burst into tears — 
tears of intense yearning for the unknown blessing of a mother's love ! " 

This " lovely form " now lies among " the cedars in the garden " at the 
old plantation near Crawfordville. 



66 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



2<tUC ^^tllVUCV, the mother of Hiram Warner, before her marriage 
with her husband, Obadiah, was Jane Coffin. Her ancestors were from 
England, and settled on Martha's Vineyard. It was there she w'as born in 
the year 1784. Some of her ancestors were distinguished seamen. Her 
father was captain of a vessel, while Admiral Cofihn of the British navy was 
a relative. 

Jane Warner, nee Cofifin, tihe subject of this sketch, was a noble scion 
of this sturdy stock. She was a woman of brave and courageous spirit, 
possessed of strong intellect well-balanced, and a warm heart beat within her 
womanly and motherly bosom. She was the mother of seven children, 
Hiram, Theron, Obadiah, and Charles being the sons, Miranda, Eliza A., and 
Jane the girls. Hiram and Obadiah came to Georgia when quite young, 
and their lives are interwoven with the history of Georgia. 

The other children remained in New England. Miss Eliza A. Warner, 
one of the daughters whose home was in Northampton, Massachusetts, till 
her death, was a lady of great culture and refinement, possessing literary 
talent of no mean order. She was the author of a number of literary works, 
some of which were translated into several languages. She contributed 
largely to the current literature of her day. The other children were all 
worthy scions of this noble and good woman, who left her impress upon 
their lives and characters. 

Jane Warner had a hard struggle to rear and educate her children, as 
she had little property, but by her heroic efiforts and self-sacrifice, patient 
toil and loving care, and never failing faith in the guidance of Almighty 
God, she lived to see them all grown up to sturdy manhood and gentle 
womanhood, honorable and useful citizens in the world. She was a deeply 
pious woman, and exhorted her children to repentance and acceptance of the 
Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. In one of her many letters to her chil- 
dren in the South she wrote : " Could I see all my children devoted to God, 
loving and serving Him, I would joyfully exclaim : 'Lord, now let thy servant 
depart in peace, for my eyes have seen thy salvation.' How is it with thy 
soul? Are you living a life of faith, trusting in the merits of Christ alone 
for pardon and mercy? Do you make a duty of secret prayer, read a portion 
of God's holy word day by day ! keep holy the blessed Sabbath-day? " That 
these exhortations found lodgment in the hearts of her children is believed 
and known, and one of the last requests of Judge Warner to those around 
his dying bedside was, " Sing for me my mother's favorite hymn, ' Rock of 
Ages, cleft for me.' " As a further evidence of the impress of this good 
woman's life upon her son it is said that " it was his habit to keep upon the 
table in his bedroom, to the last day of his life, two books. One was Black- 
stone and the other was the Bible. The Bible his mother gave him when 
he left home for his far journey across rolling billows to a distant land. To 
this same Bible he turned for comfort and support, when, fifty-eight years 
afterwards, an old and broken man, he entered the " Valley of the Shadow." 

67 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



Judge Warner's mother is said to have been " a woman distinguished for 
interesting conversation and for a certain impressiveness in person and 
manner, and was in every respect a superior woman." 

Judge Warner left his New England home to seek his fortune in the far 
South, when he was but a boy of nineteen years of age. " As he left the old 
homestead his mother went upstairs, and from an open window watched his 
retreating form. We can almost hear her heart-throbs as he went out of 
her sight. We can almost see her tears drop on the plain old window- 
sill of this New England cottage, as the mother looks for the last time upon 
her vanishing first-born." Who can measure the depth of a mother's love — 
the influence of such a life and mother, upon the lives and characters of her 
children? 



68 



^XaVgaVCt JitlXUklJ gjCClUUitTt, mother of John Walter Beckwith, 
second Bishop of Georgia, daughter of John Wright and Nancy Stanley, and 
wife of Dr. John Beckwith, was a native of Newberne, North Carolina. 

Descended from an illustrious English family, and reared in the midst 
of wealth, culture, and refinement, she was eminently fitted to adorn society; 
but it was in her home, as wife and mother, that her strong mind and great 
iieart shone most conspicuously. Devoting her life to rearing a large family, 
much of her time was spent with iier children, joining in their games, pa- 
tiently answering their childish questions, settling their httle disputes, and 
ever inculcating the great truths of religion. 

Mrs. Beckwith was a beautiful type of the cheerful Christian mother; 
her nursery was full of merry voices, and her call, " Mother is coming," was 
always hailed with delight. Her children's devotion to her is not surprising, 
and it has been often remarked that, in reading the Fifth Commandment, the 
Bishop's voice had always a tender cadence. Mrs. Beckwith was not a 
woman of many rules, but there were two virtues upon which she insisted — 
truth and obedience — from these there was no escape. 

Shortly after the birth of Bishop Beckwith, he was taken desperately ill, 
and with many prayers for his recovery, his mother dedicated him, in a 
special manner, to the service of the Master. It is not to be wondered at 
that at the age of fifteen he was presented for confirmation, and early in his 
collegiate career announced his wish to study for the Holy Ministry. 

In the midst of home duties Mrs. Beckwith always found time to join 
her husband in acts of kindness and benevolence among the poor, to whom 
he so often ministered professionally. Her hospitality was proverbial, as 
was also the fact that she set her face against gossip — few would have dared 
to repeat a scandal to her. In the home was a family altar, at which the 
Bishop's father of^ciated in the morning; in the evening the mother gathered 
her little flock and the young negroes of the household into the nursery, 
for a simple evening prayer before they retired for the night. In this " upper 
chamber " was born the peace and happiness which illuminated the life of the 
late Bishop Beckwith, as well as the lives of all those who, by the grace of 
God, were brought in contact with him. 

Such was the mother, and such the youthful environment of him w'ho 
" used the of^ce of a Bishop well." 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



69 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



HXVS. CC^TiavUs ^OUiard; mother of Rev. Charles Wallace Howard, 
of Georgia. Married, on the i6th of March, 1761, by the Rev. Henry Bar- 
clay, in Trinity Church, New York City, George Anderson and Deborah 
Grant. 

The young couple made their home in Savannah, in the colony of 
Georgia. 

Their children were John, George, and Mary, born July 30, 1766. Mary 
Anderson married John Wallace, June 12, 1781. Their second daughter, 
Jane W'allace, was born December 20, 1785, and was married, February 18, 
1807, to Charles Howard. 

The children of Charles and Jane Howard were Mary, born December 
30, 1807, and Charles Wallace, born October 10, 181 1. 

As Mr. Charles Howard died June 23, 1819, Mrs. Howard was left to 
fill the place of father and mother to her children. How well she performed 
these arduous duties is attested by the honorable career of her son Charles 
Wallace Howard. That she made him a Christian and theologian read this 
inscription from the records of the Huguenot Church of Charleston, South 
Carolina. 

Inscription from the records of the church : " This page in the records 
of the French Protestant Church, is dedicated to the memory of the Rev. 
Charles Wallace Howard, first pastor of the church on its reorganization in 
1845. He died at Ellerslie, his residence on Lookout Mountain, Georgia, on 
the 25th day of December, 1876, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. A 
theologian, his was the power to make plain the dealings of God with man. 
A Christian, his was the power to illustrate the adaptedness of Christianity 
to the necessities of our nature. A Christian teacher and orator, his argu- 
ment convinced the reason, his wise, persuasive words subdued the heart 
and brought it into harmony with the intellect. His ministry in this church 
will be remembered with a loving veneration as long as there is a survivor 
who worshipped under its blessed influence." 

That by her love of country she made her son a patriot of the highest 
order, read this letter from Gen. Joseph E. Johnston : 



102 E. Grace St., 

Richmond, Va., 
January 26, 1877. 
Dear Major: 

Your very friendly letter of the 30th was not received until a few days 
ago, and without observing the date I waited for the paper mentioned in it 
until now. It has not come, which I regret very much. For it would be 
a pleasure to me, tho' a sad one, to read in a Georgia paper, such a tribute 
to the high merit of him whom I love to remember as Captain Howard, 
as is due from Georgians. His loss is a great one to Georgia. For his 
capacity, patriotism and virtue made him more truly useful, since the war, 

70 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



tlian any other Georgian. I valued his friendship as highly as any that I 
could claim, and I shall regret his death and cherish his memory during the 
remnant of my life. Be assured, my dear Major, of my deep sympathy with 
Mrs. Bryan and yourself in your great sorrow. 

Very truly yours, 

J. E. Johnston. 
To Maj. Henry Bryan. 

That by her love for the soil, she made her son among the foremost of 
Georgia's agriculturists, read this tribute from the Georgia State Agricul- 
tural Society: 

" Whereas, this convention desires to give a suitable expression to its 
high appreciation of the long continued and distinguished services of Charles 
Wallace Howard to the cause of Southern agriculture, and of his earnest 
cooperation in the work of this society; 

"And whereas, his fine natural powers and high culture, his large attain- 
ments in agricultural knowledge, and his gifts as a writer and speaker, 
eminently fitted him for usefulness in the sphere of public service, and they 
were all devoted to it with an interest and zeal such as is common only in 
subserving private interests; 

" And whereas, he had in an eminent degree the power of acquiring 
knowledge and of diffusing it among others, in a manner not only lucid 
but attractive — and was largely instrumental in educating the people of the 
State in agricultural topics, and in elevating and stimulating their tastes; 

" Be it therefore resolved, that a page of the printed minutes of this 
society be printed with the inscription: 

" To the Memory of Charles Wallace Howard." 

That Mrs. Charles Howard was an earnest Christian is attested by 
the life of her noble son. On his marriage in 1835, to Miss Susan Jett 
Thomas, she made her home with them. And to their children she gave the 
same devoted attention she had given her own. As she was not only the 
well-read woman, capable of directing her son's education, but the accom- 
plished lady, skilled in music, tapestry work, lace making, gardening, and 
the rare art of distilling essences from her flowers, she was an inspiration 
to her grandchildren, enthusing their young minds with a love for the 
beautiful in every form. 

Mrs. Howard died suddenly in the sixty-second year of her age, March 
19, 1848, and is buried in the Wallace lot, in the Christ Church Cemetery, 
Savannah, Georgia. 

" By their fruits ye shall know them." 

Jane Wallace Howard Bryan. 

71 



The Mothers nf 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



AllUUlct ^ilU 3^UtIVC\US was the mother of Fanny Andrews, the 
authoress, or, as she more frequently signs her magazine articles, E. F. 
Andrews, and the grandmother of Maude Andrews Ohl, the founder of the 
" woman's department," in Georgia journalism. Her maiden name was 
Annulet Ball. Her father, Frederic Ball, belonged to the New Jersey family 
of that name who played such a prominent part in the settlement of Newark, 
and was a direct descendant of the builder of the famous old colonial home- 
stead, " Tuscan Hall," near that city. 

Frederic Ball, the father of Mrs. Andrews, migrated, when quite a 
young man, to Savannah, Georgia, where his daughter Annulet was born on 
the last day of the year. 1810. Like his grandfather, Frederic Ball had a 
fondness for building, and named his three oldest children after the three 
orders of architecture, Tuscan, Doric, and Corinthia. As there was not an- 
other order left for the next daughter, she was fitted into an architectural 
ornament to the family structure, and hence her rather peculiar name, 
Annulet. 

Mr. Ball died of yellow fever in Savannah, about 1820, and his widow 
removed with her family to Washington, Wilkes County, which was her 
native place. Duncan Campbell, father of the late Judge John Campbell, 
of the United States Supreme Court, was also living near Washington at 
that time, and a childish love affair sprang up between the future chief jus- 
tice and the widow Ball's pretty daughter, and to his dying day the old 
gentleman retained a sentiment of romantic friendship for the sweetheart of 
his boyhood. But there were rivals in the field, and at seventeen. Annulet 
Ball married Garnett Andrews, then a rising young lawyer, and afterwards 
judge of the Northern Circuit. He was a man " given to hospitality," and 
his beautiful home, " Haywood," on the outskirts of the village, was for 
nearly fifty years a noted centre of that gracious hospitality which was one 
of the most charming features of the old time Southern life. 

The high old dames of those days did not trouble themselves much 
about the " higher education," and indeed, if the truth must be told, I am 
afraid they were rather inclined to look upon it with suspicion, as a sort of 
Yankee invention not altogether befitting the aristocratic seclusion in which 
a Southern gentlewoman was expected to live. But while shrinking from 
publicity, and eschewing all kinds of cheap notoriety with a contempt which 
does credit alike to their taste and their understanding, these gentle-man- 
nered women of the old South were not a whit behind their more noisy 
descendants in unselfish devotion to the public good, as their conduct during 
the Civil War shows full well. Mrs. .Andrews was not idle in those trying 
times. As president of the Soldiers' Aid Society of her town, she joined with 
the other noble women of the South in trying to uphold at home the cause 
for which her sons were fighting in the field. 

Mrs. .\ndrews was a woman of cultivated literary tastes, and was con- 
sidered, by those who knew her, one of the best historical scholars in the 

72 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



State. She was also a very charming letter writer, and I do not think I 
can close this sketch more appropriately than by giving the following ex- 
tract from one of her letters, with its suggestive ghmpses of life on a South 
Georgia plantation fifty years ago : 

Tallassee, Baker County, Georgia. 
December 4, 1849. 

My dear: — We are the happiest people you ever could imagine, shut 
up as we are in these solitudes ; not that the solitude has anything to do with 
our happiness, unless it is to make us prize the more such dear little missives 
as reached us to-night. Our amusements here are few, as you may well 
imagine. I have more than the others of the family, in looking after the 
dinner, the dairy, the poultry, and the little negro babies 

Of our adventures in Milledgeville I have not space to say much. We 
had visitors, made calls, were at the inauguration, went everywhere, saw 
everybody, and were glad to get away. On our journey down here we 
stopped at a house to spend the night, and there we met one of the Albany 
lawyers, a nice young man, who told us that Mr. Cheever had been nearly 
dead of " contraction " of the brain. Another place we had to stay at, they 
put every one of us in the same room, and we could get no other. There 
was a big fireplace in our room, but it was so arranged as to endanger the 
whole house if we made a good fire. In the morning we had neither dress- 
ing-table, looking-glass, nor washbowl. I am thankful to say that was our 
last night on the road. 

I have received Mrs. Swisshelm's papers. Were you not a little aston- 
ished to find yourself taking an abolition paper? What do you think of the 
" rights of woman " ? As to me, I am opposed to the rights of women even 
more, if possible, than to " female education." I have written for Eliza 
Cook's " Journal." Suppose it should be devoted to female education and 
rights! I'll send you some numbers when I get them. We have lately been 
amusing ourselves with Lamartine's " Confidences." In one place he speaks 
of his mother's books, and says she had among them a copy of the Bible 
" abridged and purified." We are diverted at the idea of a man making 
confidants of a million or two of people. 

Mother is in her usual health, only a little troubled about those two 
incorrigible tomboys, Fanny and Metta. She can't keep them clean, or even 
whole, they tear everything so; and they have fattened so on sugar cane and 
ground peas that we can't even make their clothes meet. Sometimes their 
grandma takes them in hand, and by main strength manages to button their 
frocks, with the result that in half an hour every button has burst off. 



73 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



Cvatlieviue MCiun IflcUliUCJ, tlie mother of Judge WilUam B. 
Fleming, of Savannah, Georgia, was the daughter of Benjamin Winn and 
his wife Catharine. 

Jolin Winn, father of Benjamin, married Sarah, daughter of Benjamin 
Baker and his wife Susana Osgood. 

These were among the leaders of the band of Puritans who came from 
Dorchester, South Carolina, to St. John's Parish, now Liberty County, 
Georgia, in 1754, and as nearly as 1756 the records shows John Winn as a 
" Select Man." 

Stevens says : " The narrative of this Pilgrim colony of Pilgrim sires 
constitutes an interesting page in the history of Georgia. Colonial retro- 
spect does not always bring renown, but here honest piety and worth blend 
in the origin and progressive existence of this Dorchesterian band." 

In March, 1668, a little colony of Puritans from Dorset, Devon, and 
Summersetshire, England, sailed for the New World. In common with all 
early emigrants they suffered many privations, and in 1695 the whole church 
and the pastor sailed for South Carolina, and enduring the vicissitudes 
of the voyage, they landed oil the Ashley River, and settled New Dor- 
chester, and raised their grateful Ebenezer by celebrating the Lord's 
Supper. 

After many years, hearing good reports of the lands in Georgia, the 
colony emigrated hither and settled in St. John's Parish. Their first care 
was to provide for the services of religion, and a temporary log church was 
built on Midway neck. Aiming to keep the original principles which they 
had all along retained, they framed certain articles for the civil and religious 
government of their territory. 

Their policy was indeed rigid and exclusive, but they were founding a 
home of their posterity, and they strove to guard it from mercenary and 
alienating influences which would divide its unity, destroy its morals, or dis- 
perse its members. 

" The accession of such a people was an honor to Georgia, and has ever 
proven one of her richest blessings. The sons of that colony were worthy of 
their sires; their sires were the moral and intellectual nobility of the prov- 
ince." 

Alexander Stephens says, " By far the greater number of these settlers 
were men of worth and education; they brought many slaves with them 
and took a prominent part in the history of the State." 

From these staunch people Catherine Winn was descended. She was 
born in Liberty County, Georgia, in 1775. Some one in writing of her 
during her girlhood says, "Catherine Winn has remarkable beauty and grace 
of manner." The free country hfe of a pioneer in the soft air of the Southern 
pine border had no hardening effects, although nerve and courage were es- 
sentials, almost every woman could handle firearms, and !iad need to know 
their value. Spinning and weaving were accomplishments in her days, and 

74 



T'/tf Mothers o/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



the lively measure of stepping before the wheel, following the singing thread, 
was gracefulness personified. 

In this highly intellectual colony the graces of mind were cultivated; 
boys and girls stood shoulder to shoulder in the schools, and with such 
instructors as the father of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Lyman Hall, and otiiers 
of note, it is not strange that Catherine Winn should have been well versed 
in the classics and languages, as well as the polite literature of that day. 
Hers was a strong character, combining firmness with great gentleness. 

Catherine, like most of the other colonists of Liberty, was a devout 
Presbyterian, adhering to the pure and rigid tenets of that faith. 

In 1804 she married William Bennett Fleming, a neig'hboring planter, 
and after one year of happiness, at the birth of her child, she passed into 
the Beyond. She was buried in the old churchyard at Midway. 

As the little son grew- apace his father loved to trace his best char- 
acteristics to the lovely mother who had given her life for his, and early 
impressed upon the youthful heart and mind the beauty, sweetness, and 
strength of her short span. In after years, during a long and successful 
life, the son was ever conscious of the beneficent guidance. Being the son of 
a wealthy planter, he was given every advantage, entering Yale at seventeen, 
and graduating with marked honors. He easily gained distinction, going to 
the bench in 1847, ^^'^ with one intermission kept the position for twenty 
years. 

He was an able jurist and man of great strength of character, firm in his 
convictions, and with rare integrity. He was elected to Congress in 1878, 
and afterwards returned to the Superior Court bench. In 1881, on account 
of his feeble health, he rettirned to his boyhood home at Walthourville, 
where he passed into his reward in 1886. He was an honorary member of 
the Georgia Hussars, and they attended his funeral in a body, forming a 
noble escort. 

The Savannah " Morning News" has this tribute to pay on Judge Flem- 
ing's retirement : " From this bar, ever noted for its ability and courtesy, no 
judge has been selected who has so long held this exalted office, and his 
name will go to history along with the most illustrious. Others may have 
been in some respects greater tlian he. but no one of tliem has been, no 
one can be, more honest or purer. Of a nature Doric in its simplicity, he 
has adorned a life splendid in its probity." 

A contemporary speaking of him says : " Sirs, for many years there 

sat upon the bench of the highest Court in Chatham, a judge noble, learned, 

illustrious, who held the scales of justice with such even balance that they 

maintained an equilibrium almost divine." 

A Friend. 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



I^XavU I^OltiSit ^aCOtt, mother of Senator Augustus Octavius Bacon, 

was on both paternal and maternal sides descended from the noted Liberty- 
County Puritan colony which came to Georgia in 1752, an offshoot of the 
English Puritan colony which in 1630 founded Dorchester, Massachusetts. 

Her father, Samuel Jones, was the eldest of three brothers, the other 
two being William and Moses; their father was Samuel Jones, who was 
himself the son of Samuel Jones, an officer in the Revolutionary army. All 
of these ancestors were planters and men of scholarly culture. The father 
of the subject of this sketch was further noted for his taste and skill both in 
painting and in music. Her mother was Miss Mary Law, a sister of Judge 
William Law, a native of Liberty County, who removed to Savannah, where 
he became by general recognition one of the foremost jurists of the State. 

On November 17, 181 7, Samuel Jones and Mary Law were married, 
and Mary Louisa Jones, born February 9, 1819, was their only child; before 
she was a year old her father died. Within three years her mother again 
married, and in her second marriage became the mother of many children. 
In this new relationship the little orphan girl was naturally in a position of 
comparative isolation, and that fact, joined to the gentle loveliness of her 
disposition, caused her to become the object of an aft'ectionate solicitude 
on the part of her kins-people ; and especially in the homes of her uncles, 
William Jones and Moses Jones, and William Law, she was during her child- 
hood and girlhood received and loved as a cherished member of their several 
families. 

No picture remains of her. Li her time the Daguerrian art was un- 
known, and in her short life of twenty-one years no portrait was painted of 
her; but the testimony of all who knew her leaves no doubt that in her 
young womanhood she possessed a rare personal beauty — a beauty leav- 
ing one to question whether it was more that of feature or that of lovely 
quality of soul and heart which shone through her countenance with a vague 
and never-ceasing charm. Above the medium height, her figure was full 
graceful, and well rounded, while her hair was brown; yet with deep blue 
eyes, rosy cheeks and lips, and fair complexion slie was almost a type of the 
pure blonde. 

In early life the writer was in daily association with those who then 
recently had been her companions in every stage of her life, and her per- 
sonal beauty and the loveliness of her character, her amiability, her cheerful 
cordiality, and her unaffected piety were themes upon which each loved to 
dwell with affectionate pleasure. 

When seventeen years of age, October 19, 1836, she was married to the 
Rev. Augustus O. Bacon, a young man three years her senior, himself on his 
paternal side a descendant of the same Liberty County Puritan colony, 
while his mother. Miss Sarah Holcombe, was a Cavalier stock, the daughter 
of Henry Holcombe, a Virginian, and a captain in the Revolutionary army, 
and afterwards a Doctor of Divinity. To them a son was born, August 22, 

76 



i837i who was named Samuel Jones, for his mother's father. In the devo- 
tion of a fond husband and in the new-found joy of motherhood, no happier 
Hfe was there than hers, but affliction's hand was soon laid upon her. July 3, 
1839, her husband died, leaving her with her little two-year old boy. Three 
months after her husband's death she gave birth to another son, whom she 
named Augustus Octavius for the father he had never seen. While in her 
widowhood she enjoyed the most loving ministrations from the mother, 
brothers, and sisters of her deceased husband, with whom she made there- 
after her home, yet withal that the short year of life which remained to her 
was a saddened period and need not be told. In the next autumn she 
sickened with the same climatic fever which had taken her husband from 
her, and on October i, 1840, she died. Her elder son, Samuel Jones, sur- 
vived her but six days, and when his little life was breathed away, loving 
hands opened the mother's grave and laid him to rest upon her breast. 

The sole survivor of the family was the infant son Augustus, then less 
than a year old; he was immediately adopted by his paternal grandmother, 
Mrs. Sarah Holcombe Bacon, by whom he was reared from infancy to 
manhood — she was his second mother. 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



77 



T'^f Mothers o/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



PlaVVJ ^mitSOn gill ©IcmCntS, wife of Dr. Adam Clements, 
to uiiom she was married September 13, 1833, in Muscogee County, 
Georgia, was a daughter of James and Martha Park. She was born May 18, 
1 8 10, in Putnam County, Georgia. 

Her mother's maiden name was Yandell, and that of her grandmother 
on her mother's side was Wilson. Prior to her marriage, she lived a short 
time in Crawford County, Georgia, and afterward in Merriweather, and also 
in Heard Counties. In 1838 the family moved to Walker County, near the 
point of John's Mountain, and about 1853 located near Villanow, their home 
thence afterwards. 

Mrs. Clements was related to a branch of one of the Hill families in 
Georgia; also to the Yandells of Kentucky and Tennessee. Her parents 
were born in Pennsylvania, and moved near McKlenburg, North Carolina, 
where they were married. 

She received a good English education in the private schools where she 
grew up. 

She was fond of poetry and literature of the moral and lofty type, as 
illustrated in her enjoyment of the writings of such authors as Young, 
Harvey, Cowper, Campbell, and Moore. 

Her mind was vigorous and her memory retentive. Through life 
she successfully utilized the work and learning of 'her youth. She was 
gifted in art, and notwithstanding the unneglected demands and faithful 
care of a large household, she found time to exercise her talent in paint- 
ing. 

Mrs. Clements was the mother of ten children, two of whom died in 
infancy. These were Mary Anne Jane Clements, born August 22, 1836, died 
September 2, 1836; and Lunsford Yandell Clements, born March 24, 1848, 
died January 2, 1849. Of the others, all of whom grew to maturity, were 
married and became parents, two have since died. These were Martha 
Alminia Clements, born November 11, 1849; married in 1868, to Joseph W. 
Cavender, and died November 15, 1882; and Dr. William Flavias Josephus 
Clements, born July 31, 1834; died December 9, 1892; a physician and then 
a resident of Green County, Arkansas. He was a captain in the Confederate 
army. 

The others are Dr. Julius Park Clements, of Birmingham, Alabama, 
born September 12, 1837, formerly assistant surgeon of the Eleventh 
Georgia Regiment in the Civil War, and afterward representative from 
Whitfield County in the Georgia Legislature. 

Adolphus Charles Clements, born February 7, 1839, a farmer near 
Villanow, Walker County, Georgia, and who was also in the Confederate 
army. 

Dr. James Wilson Clements, of Subligna, Georgia, formerly assistant 
surgeon of the Twenty-third Georgia Regiment. 

Cicero Thomas Clements, a lawyer, of Rome, Georgia. IxDrn May 2, 

78 




MARY WILSON HILL CLEMENTS 



"The Mothers <?/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



1842, formerly sergeant-major Eig-hth Georgia Battalion, and solicitor- 
general for the Rome Circuit twelve years. 

John Adam Clements, Greenbush, Georgia, born March 14, 1844, a 
farmer, was wounded in the Confederate service in the First Regiment, 
Georgia, S. L. Stovall's Brigade, June 22, 1864, and endured the hardships 
of prison life at Camp Chase. 

Judson Claudius Clements, a lawyer, of Rome, Georgia, born February 
12, 1846, was first lieutenant in the regiment last above stated, and was 
wounded at Atlanta, July 22. 1864; was afterward four years a member 
of the Lower House of the Georgia Legislature, three years of the State 
Senate, ten years (1881-1891) member of Congress from the Seventh Dis- 
trict of Georgia, and Interstate Commerce Commissioner since 1892. 

Mrs. Clements, devoted to her home and its cares, seldom left it unless 
on a mission of sympathy or help. 

She was, from her youth, a faithful Christian, and was, as was her 
husband also, a member of the Christian Church. 

She highly valued education, was herself a teacher at home of her own 
children and others, when by reason of their youth or the inaccessibility 
of the schoolhouse she deemed it necessary, and was always an advocate and 
patron of the Sunday-school. 

Endowed with great moral strength and fortitude, though of a nature 
intensely affectionate and deeply sympathetic, she was in the hour of 
her greatest sacrifice and sorrow strong to cheer and strengthen others. 
In 1864, a refugee from her home, which had been overrun by the Northern 
army, the Southern cause overshadowed with gloom, as one of her sons 
was returning to the front, ha\ing been wounded, as she planted her tender 
kiss upon his lips, she placed in his hand these words : 

" My son : May you be blessed with that grace which will sustain 
you in the greatest trials that await you. May you cherish all those prin- 
ciples that adorn the truly good and bra\e. May your heart know no fear, 
except that of doing wrong. May you have moral courage to do and speak 
what is right at all times, and may you not be discouraged though your 
way seems dark. 

" Trust in the Lord, and he will illumine your path. Look beyond the 
stormy sea of time for a more peaceful and blessed abode, and all will be 
right, though it seem wrong. Mother." 

She gave like encouragement and counsel to each as they left to answer 
their country's call. 

\\'hen about sixty-three years of age. she cheerfully assumed the charge 
and care of a family of three small grandchildren, and about nine years later, 
another family of six. They had suffered the irreparable loss of their 
mother. Her home was their home; she cared for and trained these as her 
own. They were greatly blessed in their grandmother. 

Verily .she was, in devoted watchfulness, care, and training, the faithful 

79 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



mother of three famiHes; and if less than such in the intensity of her love and 
sympathy for her bereaved grandchildren, only so because of the unattain- 
able peerlessness of only a mother's heart in the perfection of those jewels. 
Her husband had died November 15, 1886, in his eigthy-third year. She 
died February 3, 1892, in her eighty-second year. 

Hers was a " well-rounded life," adorned from youth to age with 
" Faith, Hope, and Charity," exemplified in deed and word, and shining 
more and more unto the day of her rest. 



80 



^ttSaU ^tcaVUS CalltOXVU, ^lee VVellborn, was born in Wilkes County, 
Georgia, August 22, 1813; was happily married to the distinguished and 
lamented Dr. Andrew B. Calhoun, January 15, 1840, and died in the flower 
of her maturity, August 18, 1857. 

Mrs. Calhoun was a brilliant belle of the brunette type, and there were 
laid at her feet the hearts and fortunes of many chivalric suitors; her final 
choice was a royal compliment to her wisdom. 

Of aristocratic descent, and surrounded with all the amenities of wealth, 
heart and brain culture were her proud birthrights. Her literary acquire- 
ments were of an admirable order; a letter written by her on the eve of her 
marriage is an almost flawless gem of literary and poetic worth. Her love of 
belles-lettres, her inflexible judgment, tempered by gracious charity, and her 
laudable aspirations are happily accentuated in the success of her children. 
Combined with the sterling worth and eminent acquirements of their father, 
her descendants are so favored by ancestry as Mrs. Tv. C. Divine (deceased), 
Mrs. \Vm. R. Caldwell, Mrs. John M. Hill, Mr. Ramsay Calhoun, Judge 
Andrew Calhoun, and Dr. .\.. W. Calhoun, the renowned oculist, of Atlanta. 
Georgia, whose fame is a matter of national pride. 

The social, literary, scientific, and business successes of her children 
would have made the mother's heart beat high with joy. 

In the difficult role of the Southern matron, Mrs. Calhoun shone pre- 
eminent. In her character, the charmed circle of the social, the fireside, and 
the spiritual virtues all met in harmony, and love has minted no coinage too 
redolent of perfume for her cherished memory. The worth affixed upon 
the moral escutcheon of this family by their character-making mother was 
of Spartan brevity and force, " Compelled to be noble " — compelled by the 
gracious incentive of a beloved, admired, and representative mother; one 
who realized, in every fibre of her earnest nature, that children are the true 
exponents of maternal greatness. 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



81 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



gumiitU ^SlhitC ItXltnUCVhuU, nee Shackelford, belonged to an old 
colonial family, of Georgetown, South Carolina. Her father, James Shackel- 
ford, married twice. His first wife, Sarah Bossard, died at the birth of her 
son James; he later married Elizabeth Cogsdell. Their daughter, Hannah 
White, was born December 14, 1794. In the records of the parish church 
of Prince George, Winyaw, is still to be found this entry : " Married by Rev. 
M. H. Laner, in church of Prince George, Winyaw, Charles Munnerlyn, to 
Hannah Shackelford, May 13, 1819." Several children were born to them, 
Ijut only one, Charles James, sur\'ived, and while he was a lad they moved 
to Decatur County, Georgia. Through years of happy, prosperous married 
life this son was the crown of their happiness; the unspoiled darling of the 
house, manly, generous, affectionate, and noble. The beautiful relation- 
ship of mother and son was strikingly portrayed between the two. His 
chivalrous impulse to right the wrong and protect the weak, and his rev- 
erence for womanhood was the outcome of the tender worshipful devotion 
inspired by the pure-hearted mother. The subtle, invisible force which 
moulds character is as pervasive as the atmosphere which surrounds and 
betrays the presence of the rose. Love and self-sacrifice characterized the 
gentle ministry of her daily life, and in this atmosphere her gifted son's char- 
acter crystallized into the highest type of Christian manhood, and true as the 
needle to the pole, ever answered to the call of duty. His patriotic record, 
which formed a part of the history of his State and the Confederacy, as 
soldier and statesman, no less than his generous aid and sympathy to friend, 
neighbor, or stranger in time of need, and finally his Christian fortitude and 
philosophy at the loss of fortune and the cherished cause for which he wil- 
lingly sacrificed all, stamp him as a great and good man; and his honored 
mother shared with family and friends a just tribute of love and pride in her 
son. The mother having the environment of a home-life of quiet, unruffled 
peace and prosperity, shielded and dominated by the protecting love of a 
husband — a man of strong character and noble nature — may furnish no 
striking incident to capture the fancy or arrest the attention of the cursory 
reader. But to those who knew her and were so fortunate as to share the 
attractive and charming hospitality, the refined, cultivated family life at 
" Refuge," their beautiful country home, her presence was a benediction, 
and impressed every one with her ideal sweetness and purit}'. After the 
marriage of her son, who brought his lovely, accomplished young wife to 
the parental home, she saw her grandchildren grow up around her, as the 
years went by, and their affection and companionship soothed and com- 
forted her in the loss of her husband, and brightened her declining years. 
Here, surrounded by loved ones, her gentle spirit passed painlessly to a 
blessed immortality on November 8, 1866. 

A friend writing of the first mistress of " Refuge " says, " Peace and 
plenty and a boundless hospitality characterized this Southern home. Sur- 
rounded by varying landscape of hill and glen, with ample lawns and tower- 

82 



ing trees, on the highroad midway between two Southern towns, twenty 
miles apart, it was an inviting refuge for the weary traveller. . . . The 
estate consisted of miles of outlying lands with negro villages here and there 
for the accommodation of hundreds of happy slaves; the great house stood 
surrounded by gardens of flowers, and, with free hospitality, the gracious 
mistress welcomed friend and stranger. Preachers and their families lingered 
for weeks at a time. Supplementary to the great house were two vine-laden 
cottages, on the one side where a family might rest in privacy during a pro- 
tracted visit; on the other, where the beggar was made comfortable for a 
night, or while in distress ; no one was ever turned away empty handed. 

" When the last crucial days of the Civil War came, and women and 
children were made homeless by the enemy, ' Refuge ' was the harbor for 
many storm-driven souls. The young master having left mother, wife, and 
children for his country's call, these gracious women acted upon the divine 
injunction, ' Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my 
brethren, ye have done it unto me.' When all but the home was swept 
away, and the master came broken in spirit, it was their cheer which sus- 
tained him. ' Refuge ' was still home ; and friend and stranger and beggar, 
as of yore, received a gracious welcome and partook of the scant store." 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



83 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



J'ilVUh J>UvlUC ^OlUllVd gUUUS, the mother of Augusta J. Evans 
Wilson, was of the aristocratic family of Howards, one of the most cultured 
in the State. Her father was John Howard, who married Jane Vivian. 

Sarah was born July 15, 1813, at Milledgeville, Georgia, the then capital 
of the State, the centre of learning, culture, and affluence, where gathered 
the brightest minds of the great Commonwealth, and where assembled 
the wit and beauty for which the State was noted. 

She was the youngest of nine children; and when her mother was 
widowed, and they removed to their new home in Columbus, Georgia, the 
little Sarah had not only the wealth of affection lavished upon the youngest 
of a family, but the wholesome example and precepts of the whole lovely 
household circle. She was sent to a boarding-school at the usual age, and 
there did good work, as attested by the fact that to her was due almost en- 
tirely the very finished education her daughter Augusta received. She 
married, at twenty-one. Matt Ryon Evans. 

The Mexican War had just ended, and everything was in a thoroughly 
disorganized condition when Mr. Evans removed his family to San /Vntonio. 
Texas. Mrs. Evans was a remarkably clever woman, very literary in her 
tastes. She was possessed of an unusual amount of true Southern courage, 
which enabled her, in the face of all obstacles, to take up the office of edu- 
cator to her children, with what success the whole country knows. 

" Augusta Evans is without doubt the most fascinating, brilliant, and 
satisfactory writer in the South: she has woven into her novels all that is 
good and great in the human race, and she has given to her heroes and 
heroines the imperishable virtues of beauty, morality, and Christianity. 
With all this she is a typical Southerner, a most lovable and winsome woman, 
sensitive and retiring." 

She said: " I hold peculiarly dear the confidence and esteem of my own 
sex, and I deem it a greater privilege to possess the affection of my country- 
women than to assist my countrymen in making national laws." 

To-day she is peacefully passing her days at her beautiful flower-em- 
bellished home in Mobile, Alabama, and from thence she writes this tribute 
to her mother : 

" She died of pneumonia, February 6, 1878. All her life, so fragrant 
with good deeds, she was a faithful member of the ]\Iethodist-Episcopal 
Church. Each year of my life I realize more vividly the wonderful clearness 
of her judgment, the breadth and richness of her intellectual resources, her 
unswerving loyalty to duty, and the purity and nobility of the lofty standards 
by which she patiently strove to elevate the thoughts and lives of her eight 
children. Her home record as devoted Christian, wife, and mother remains 
our most precious, imperishable heritage since she entered into blessed 
rest in 1878. She sowed good seed broadcast in our young hearts, and had 
we always heeded her counsel, no tares would be bound up in our sheaves 
at the final harvest." 

84 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



(CathcVinC ^athshcbU i'lcmiuCJ, ('"'^ Moragne) was born at 
New Bordeaux, Abbeville Counly, South Carolina, May 9, 1823. Her 
father, Isaac Moragne, was the youngest son of Pierre Moragne, one of the 
leaders of the colony of French Huguenots who arrived in Charleston, South 
Carolina, April 14, 1764, and soon after settled at New Bordeaux. Pierre 
Moragne was educated at a college in Paris. A journal of his travels and a 
diary kept for some years after his arrival in America are still in possession 
of the family. 

Isaac Moragne married Margaret Blanton Caine, of English ancestry, 
her mother being the granddaughter of Mrs. Margaret Blanton, of Virginia, 
and nearly related to John Randolph, of Roanoke. Of this marriage there 
were eleven children, six daughters (four of whom died unmarried), and 
five sons. 

Mary Elizabeth, the eldest child, early developed a literary talent. 
" The British Partisan," a historical romance from her pen, appeared in 1839 
in the " Augusta Mirror." She was afterward married to Rev. William PI. 
Davis, and later in life published a volume of poems. She was also tlie 
author of numerous articles in prose. 

William C. Moragne attended the then famous school of Professor 
Waddell, at Willington; graduated at the South Carolina College; afterward 
continued his studies at Berlin and Heidelberg; practised his profession of 
law in Edgefield District, South Carolina ; served in the Mexican War under 
General Scott as first lieutenant, Company D, Palmetto Regiment; delivered 
in 1854, at New Bordeau.x, an address on the ninetieth anniversary of the 
arrival of the Huguenot colony ; died during the Civil War, holding a com- 
mission as colonel in the Confederate Army. He was married Miss Emmie 
Butler, of Edgefield, South Carolina. 

John Bayle Moragne received his early training at the Waddell school, 
and finished his education at West Point Military Academy; practised law 
in Asheville, North Carolina; served in the Mexican War under General 
Scott as first lieutenant Company E, Palmetto Regiment; was killed at the 
head of his company within the Garita de Belen, City of Mexico, September 
13. 1847. 

Isaac M. Moragne graduated in medicine at the college in Augusta, 
Georgia, and practised his profession in Lincoln County, Georgia. He 
married Miss Mary Fleming. 

Nathaniel H. Moragne graduated in medicine in New York, and prac- 
tised his profession in Palatka, Florida. He married Miss Alice Mosely, 
daughter of ex-Governor Mosely of that State. 

Edward Randolph Moragne, the youngest son, died before reaching his 
majority. 

Miss Catherine B. Moragne, the subject of this sketch, received her 
education at home and in the neighboring schools of the State. She was 
married November 5, 1850, to Mr. Porter Fleming, a merchant of Augusta, 

85 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



Georgia. By this marriage there were born six sons and two daughters. 
The eldest son, John AL, died when just entering manhood; Frank E. is 
president of the Commercial Bank of Augusta ; William H. is member of 
Congress from the Tenth District of Georgia ; Lamar L. is manager sales 
department American Cotton Co., New York ; Isaac Moragne is general 
Southeastern agent (Norfolk, Virginia) of the Fruit Growers' Association ; 
Porter, Jr., is a member of the firm of Pope & Fleming, cotton factors, 
Augusta, Georgia ; the eldest daughter, Kate Louise, married Rev. W. S. 
Bean, D.D., now at Clinton, South Carolina; the youngest daughter, Mary 
Cecile, married Mr. Landon A. Thomas, Jr., formerly of Frankfort, Ken- 
tucky, now of Augusta, and vice-president of the King Manufacturing 
Company. 

Mr. Porter Fleming, Sr., died September 9, 1891, in his eighty-fourth 
year. Mrs. Fleming is still in the enjoyment of good health at the age of 
seventy-six years, blessed with the devoted love of seven children, and inter- 
ested in the young lives of fifteen grandchildren. She proved herself at all 
times a faithful wife and a loving mother, unselfishly and tenderly devoted 
to her husband and children. She is a true and humble Christian, reared 
in the simple faith of the Bible, a book that has always been her constant 
companion. No sorrow of heart, no reverse of fortune could shake her faith 
in the promises of God and his over-ruling providence. Having spent her 
long life in loving others, others loved her; and now, in her declining years, 
she enjoys the solacing companionship of many sweet remembrances. 



86 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



flllUClJ C |>\lttthClUS CaiuUcV, mother of Allen D. Candler, the 
present Governor of Georgia, was Nancy C. Matthews, the eldest daugh- 
ter of Allen Matthews, a prominent lawyer of the western circuit of Georgia, 
who died in 1843. Allen Matthews was the oldest son of William Matthews, 
who, born in North Carolina, came to Georgia before the War of the Revolu- 
tion, was a captain in that war, and settled at its close on a bounty of land, 
given to him for his military services, on Sandy Creek, eight miles north 
of Athens, then in Franklin, now in Jackson County, Georgia. William 
Matthews was prominent in the public affairs of his day; was for twenty- 
five years, between 1805 and 1830, member of one or the other house of 
the Georgia legislature, elector on the presidential ticket in 1825, etc. He 
was an ardent Presbyterian, and was for fifty years an elder in Sandy Creek 
Church, of which he was one of the founders about a hundred years ago. 
He, about the close of the War of the Revolution, married a Miss Wakefield 
in South Carolina. They had a large family of sons and daughters, all of 
whom were brought up with that care which usually characterizes Pres- 
byterians in rearing their children. Allen, the father of the subject of this 
sketch, was the oldest child. He married, in 1814, Margaret Pickens Elton, 
daughter of Anthony Elton, who served in the War of the Revolution in what 
was called the " silk-stocking brigade " from Pennsylvania. Soon after the 
war Anthony Elton came from Pennsylvania to Georgia, married in South 
Carolina, and settled on Sandy Creek near William Matthews. Here these 
two heroes of the war for independence lived, reared their families, and died, 
the one at the extreme age of ninety-six, and the other at ninety-nine, and 
are buried within a few feet of each other in the old Sandy Creek church- 
yard. 

Margaret Pickens Elton, the mother of the subject of this sketch, was 
the second daughter of Anthony Elton, and through her mother was a 
cousin to John C. Calhoun, and related to the celebrated Pickens family 
of South Carolina, from which she got her middle name. 

Nancy Caroline Matthews, the subject of this sketch, and the mother 
of Governor Candler of Georgia, was born in Jackson County, Georgia, in 
1815, and was well educated for that day. In 1832, when the gold mines 
of North Georgia were discovered, 'her father, Allen Matthews, who had 
grown financially independent at the practice of law, abandoned his pro- 
fession, removed to Lumpkin County, Georgia, and engaged extensively 
in mining for gold. At this time enterprising and adventurous young men 
flocked from all parts of the country to this New Eldorado in quest of fame 
and fortune. Among them came Daniel Gill Candler, a young lawyer, a 
native of Columbia County, Georgia, a grandson of Colonel \\'illiam Cand- 
ler, a soldier of the War of the Revolution, and a man of much prominence 
in his day, and a lineal descendant of Lieutenant-Colonel William Candler, of 
Callan Castle, Ireland, who fought in the parliamentary army under Crom- 
well. To this Daniel Gill Candler Nancy C. Matthews was married in 1833, 

87 



The Mothers (?/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



in Lumpkin County, Georgia, and with him she lived until her death in 1869, 
in Che fifty-fifth year of her age. She was the mother of twelve children, 
eight of whom survived her. She, like her ancestors, was a devoted member 
of the Presbyterian Church, to which her husband and most of her children 
attached themselves. Born in a new county, most of whose inhabitants 
were adventurers living in mining camps, and many others Cherokee Indians 
(for this tribe had not yet left the country), her older children had no ad- 
vantages of schools, for there were none in the country; but they were not 
untaught. To them she was at once companion, teacher, and mother, and 
through her untiring efforts, encouraged by her husband, who was a man of 
literary tastes and habits, they were well taught in the books of the Sundiy- 
school and the academy, and later on she saw all of them graduate from t'he 
best colleges in the South. 

She was as modest and unostentatious as she was untiring and devoted, 
and lived only for her husband, her children, and her church. Her life was 
a life consecrated to duty, and abounded in acts of charity and benevolence. 
She was universally beloved by the poor who lived around her. to whom 
she gave of her limited means with a liberal hand. To her precepts and 
example and her Christian admonitions her son. Governor Candler, attrib- 
utes whatever measure of success he has achieved in life. 

She was buried in Alta Vista cemetery, Gainesville, Georgia. A marble 
obelisk marks her grave beside that of her husband. On this obelisk is in- 
scribed : " A devoted wife and mother, an obliging neighbor, and an humble 
Christian." 



88 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



I^Xavthll gcall C^aUtllclV mother of Bishop Warren Candler, was the 
mother of eleven children, and of one of the most remarkable families in 
Georgia. 

She was the daughter of Noble P. Beall, of Cherokee County, Georgia, 
and the niece of Gen. William Beall, whose name was associated with the 
early history of Georgia. She was descended from Scotch Presbyterian 
stock, from which she inherited many of the noble characteristics of her 
nature. 

She married the Hon. Samuel C. Candler, who himself was one of the 
most prominent men in his section of the State. He was of English extrac- 
tion and from illustrious ancestry, and was noted for his integrity and ex- 
alted ideas of truth and of right. He represented the State several limes in 
both House and Senate, and was an important factor in political circles, and 
in all important public questions his influence was felt. 

This couple, unlike many in these latter days, was a unit, and in the 
management of home and children would furnish an example worthy of 
imitation; the consequence is, that out of seven sons reared to manhood, 
not one has proven a failure, but all occupy notable positions in life — pulpit, 
bar, and commerce have noble representatives from the members. 

Mrs. Candler was left a widow in 1873, and, feeling that she must still 
carry out the plans which had been laid out for the children, she seemed to 
take on new vigor of mind; and although feeble in health and so deeply 
bereaved as never to have rallied, still the whole fibre of her being was 
aroused, and every energy was put forth in the interest of her dearest 
treasures, her children, and nobly did she act her part. She was reverenced 
by them, and her word and wish was the law of the family. All the Christian 
virtues were prominent in her character and conduct; dignity, love, grace, 
and beauty made her the personification of loveliness to her children. She 
aspired to the highest things on earth, and yet could stoop to do a kind 
act for the most obscure. Full of sympathy, she secured the confidence of 
her associates, and, abounding in admiration for all that was good and beau- 
tiful, she was appealed to by them for commendation and advice. She was 
a Methodist in its fullest sense; and so devoted was she to its principles and 
institutions, that her enthusiasm for her church almost equalled that of 
Jeanne d'Arc in her love for her country. 

She has passed from earth, leaving a void in the hearts of her children 
which can never be filled, and an example to the mothers of our land worthy 
of emulation. Her highest ideal of a woman was to be a good wife and a 
true mother; and in shaping the lives of her illustrious sons she has made 
a contribution to the world which will last forever, and her influence through 
them cannot be overestimated. In fine, she was a beautiful model of Chris- 
tian motherhood, worthy of a sculptor's hand, and of a place among the 
famous statues of the earth. 



89 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Uistinguished 

Georgians 



/ 



||:VilVlJ ^im gCUt I^OUCJStVCCt; the mother of Gen. James Long- 
street, was born in Maryland, March 13, 1792. Her father, Alarshal Dent, 
who was positive in character and Hterary in his taste, married a ?^liss 
Magruder, and in the course of time emigrated to Georgia, with his wife and 
four children. 

The oldest of these, Mary Ann Dent, the subject of this sketch, was a 
beautiful girl of fifteen when the mother died. The duties and responsibili- 
ties of the home thus devolved upon her; these she assumed cheerfully and 
discharged faithfully. 

At the age of twenty she married James Longstreet, the brother of 
Judge Longstreet, the distinguished educator and humorist of Georgia. 
She was left a widow at forty, with nine children; these she labored 
for, educated by industry, thrift, economy, and an undaunted purpose to 
have her children stand before kings, and not before mean men, in the 
language of Scripture. She lived to see all these children grown, honorably 
married, and in the Church. The Bible being their text-book, they have 
done what they could to obey the command given to our first parents, " Be 
fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth," so that her descendants numeri- 
cally run up into the hundreds. One daughter, at a recent family reunion, 
entertained eight families, in which four generations were represented, and 
all counted there were forty-five or fifty who dined with her. The general 
had ten children, and so on in lessning numbers, till now his mother's de- 
scendants stand abreast, with the best in business, social, professional, and 
church circles. She herself was magnetic; had power to make and hold 
friends: her fine conversational gifts made her entertaining: and her hospi- 
tality, together with her large family of girls, made her home a delightful 
resort for young and old. 

This home circle had to be broken. Her youngest son, James, who was 
physically strong, running over with life, push, and energy, was advised to 
compete for the scholarship offered by the Military Academy at West Point : 
this he did, and secured the appointment. At the age of sixteen he bade 
adieu to mother and loved ones, but not without mingled prayers and tears, 
hopes and fears, for the boy so much beloved. He alone can tell the emo- 
tions that struggled in his bosom as he travelled by stage to that far-away 
training school, there to begin the development and discipline of his intel- 
lectual and physical powers. His first visit home after an absence of five 
years was as full of joy to his mother as the leave-taking was of sadness. The 
occasion was the marriage of a sister two years younger than himself. He 
was just twenty-one, tall, erect, handsome; his military suit added to the 
dignity of his appearance; he was genial; his flow of spirits carried light, 
sunshine, and joy wherever he went. The house was crowded with young 
ladies who came to the weddi ng; he entertained them with his jolly songs 
and lively conversation. This wedding occasion will ever be remembered, 
even by the youngest sister. Mother was an expert in the culinary depart- 

90 



ment, and she spared no pains in preparing all tTie delicacies served at an old- 
time wedding. She gave in marriage seven daughters and two sons; but 
her charming traits of character, together with her abiding faith in God and 
man, won the love, esteem, and respect of all these sons and daug'hters-in- 
law. Amid all the vicissitudes of life her charity was unfailing, and she 
acted upon the principle that all things work for good to those who love 
God. She was true in the broad meaning of that term; hopeful, cheerful, 
loving; and died with expressions of love upon her lips, and is now mingling 
with angelic throngs in the beautiful city of God. With such a mother 
who can wonder that her son, James, who so much resembled her in person 
and in disposition, is on record as a patriot, brave soldier, hero, tried and 
true citizen? His early military discipline and training had taught him to 
surrender to the inevitable. In the Lost Cause, for which the South fought 
so bravely, his prophetic eye looked down the vista of time and saw that it 
was best for us, who could no longer contend against the odds upon the 
battle-field, to go back into the Union as loyal citizens. The cavalier spirit 
of the South was not prepared for such proposals, and so alienation arose, 
which has brought down harsh criticisms, unjust judgment, censure, instead 
of the gratitude which he won when he resigned his position in the United 
States Army to defend home, family, and native land; and fought so bravely 
in order to maintain her honor and independence. But when the " mists 
have passed away," his character will stand out in all its truthfulness, sin- 
cerity, fidelity, loyalty to God and right, and the victor's wreath will adorn 
his brow. He has been sailing o'er the sea of life nearly eighty years: some- 
times the waters have been smooth, at other times the billows have almost 
overwhelmed him. God grant that the voyage may be a safe one and he 
anchor in the haven of rest 1 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



91 



T'-^f Mothers o/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



g^UUmiTv 2luntlotpIV gongstVCCt, mother of August Baldwin Long- 
street, and oldest of six children of James FitzRandolp'h and his wife, 
Deliverance Coward, was born in Monmouth County, New Jersey, on March 
2T^, 1 761. Her father, who dropped from his name the prefix of " Fitz," was 
an ardent soldier of the Continental Army, and in the year 1781 died a 
martyr to the cause, being imprisoned by the British in what was then 
called " the Provost," a wretched prison in New York. He was of an old 
Engish family, being descended from John FitzRandolph, who held a 
colonel's commission in the royal army early in the reign of Henry VHL, > 
through Edward FitzRandolph, who immigrated to Plymouth Colony in 
1630. 

Hannah was reared in Monmouth County; and there, between 1783 
and 1785, she married William Longstreet. Shortly after her marriage the 
newly-wedded pair moved to Augusta, Ceorgia. Her husband was a genius, 
whose talents and calling were in manufactures. He invented a steam- 
boat, and but for want of means with which to construct his boat might have 
anticipated Fulton in his success. He also invented and patented the 
" breast-roller " of cotton-gins, which was of incalculable value to growers 
of the long-staple cotton. He set up two of his gins in Augusta, which were 
propelled by steam, and worked admirably, but were destroyed by fire within 
a week. 

About the year 1800 Mr. and Mrs. Longstreet moved to Edgefield 
District, South Carolina. Afterward he erected a set of steam mills near St. 
Mary's, Georgia, which were destroyed by the British in the War of 1812, 
to his great loss and discouragement. These varying fortunes were, of 
course, shared by his energetic and devoted wife. 

In the year 1814 Mr. Longstreet died, leaving his widow possessed of 
but moderate means. She returned to Augusta, and spent the remainder 
of her life in Georgia. Many of her letters to her sons and her daughters- 
in-law are still in existence. They show her to have been a woman of good 
education for that time, pious, intensely practical, industrious, affectionate, 
provident, shrewd, charitale — a blending of qualities constituting an un- 
usually strong and estimable character. For twenty-three years a widow, 
she passed that long period in a seemingly absolute devotion to her children 
and their growing families. Whenever illness or death made an inroad 
among them, .she went, succoring and comforting her sons and daughters, 
and nursing and educating the little ones — a true mother in Israel. 

She passed away in the year 1837. Her children were six in number: 
James, who was father of the distinguished Confederate general, and who 
died in 1833; Gilbert, who died in 1851; Rebecca, who married Abial Cam- 
field; Rachel; Augustus Baldwin, born on Reynolds Street, Augusta, Sep- 
tember 22, 1790; and William, who died in 1835. 

All of the children have numerous descendants except Rachel, who died 
unmarried. 

92 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



J»llVUh l^tcClcUau 4>XcimS, mother of Alexander Means, A.M., 
M.D., D.D., LL.D., F.R.S. In the summer of the year of Our Lord, 1798, 
there was visiting in the family of an opulent farmer in Oredell County, 
North Carolina, a young woman of eighteen years of age, whose name was 
Sarah McClellan. She was a native of Pennsylvania, where her parents, 
who were Scotch-Irish, had lived for some time prior to the Revolution. 

One morning in the month of August her host and relative found it 
necessary to visit a turnip patch which was in process of preparation for the 
fall sowing hy a large, surly African slave. This slave had repeatedly of late 
given trouble to his master by outbreaks of temper and rebellion against 
authority. 

Mr. left the house under protest of his wife, who warned him 

against the half-savage African in vain. He went to his fate. The negro, 
dreaming of his native jungles, perhaps, and sighing for the erstwhile free- 
dom of his wide plains, attacked the gentleman with a large mattock, and 
striking him in the temple, felled him as an ox is felled in the shambles. 
Hastening then toward the dwelling with the instrument of murder in his 
hand, he found the doors and windows shut and barred. 

The turnip patch was in sight of the house, and the frightened women 
had witnessed the tragedy from the veranda. 

Finding, as above stated, his way blocked by strong doors and windows, 
he began to beat and pound at both alternately, with the prospect of soon 
gaining admittance. 

There were none in the house save the frightened hostess. Miss 
McClellan, and a female slave or two; the "quarters," as was customary, 
being near a mile distant. 

What was to be done? Miss C . who alone seemed capable of any 

coherent thought or action, calmly formed her plans and bravely executed 
them. Secreting her trembling hostess in some distant corner of the house, 
she proceeded, together with one of the female servants, to the rear door; 
then opening it, while the bloody murderer was working for entrance at the 
front, she quietly stepped out, and proceeding, unbonneted and ungloved, to 
the near horse lot, bridled a willing horse, and sprang upon his back without 
saddle or cloth. 

The path from the horse lot led around the corner by the front. How 
was she to pass the desperate slave? It must be done. Gathering the reins 
in one hand, and urging her horse with voice and palm, she sped like the 
wind, rounded the corner, and for one brief instant was face to face with the 
savage. 

He seemed to realize her purpose, for, throwing back his half naked 
body, and raising the bloody hoe, he hurled it with demoniac fury at the 
passing horsewoman. But in the excess of his murderous wrath he mis- 
calculated, and the missile flew wide of its mark. 

On sped the intrepid girl, her dishevelled tresses floating out behind like 

93 



The Mothers of 

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some sable banner. On by the " quarters "' ; on to the nearest neighbors ; 
on and on until the entire neigliborhood was aroused and hurried to the 
scene of the crime. 

Her brave deed had prevented further crime, for the infuriated neigh- 
bors, hurrying to the scene, caught the ensanguined wretch even as his half 
nude body was half through the broken window. 

He was taken to Salisbury, tried at the next assize, sentenced, and hung; 
and, in accordance with the barbaric usage of those old days, his body was 
decapitated, and his head fastened upon the top of a long pole which was 
planted in the court-house square. Long it remained there, a grinning 
horror and a grizzly warning to all murderers. After the loosened wool 
and decayed iiesh had fallen piece by piece, and the grinning skull was alone 
left, the bluebirds mated, and with amorous dalliance built their modest 
nest in its cavernous jaw. 

Of course Miss McClellan became famous. Two years later she met 
and was married to Alexander Means, a native of the " Emerald Isle." The 
result of that union was one boy, born in Statesville, North Carolina. Feb- 
ruary, 1 80 1. 

Often have I heard this boy, long, long after the brave, sweet woman 
who gave him birth had " gone to her fathers," tell of how she encouraged, 
guided, and strengthened his young life. 

Exercising a discipline firm yet loving, she led him away from the follies 
and crimes of childhood and youth up into the broad highway of truth and 
godliness, which his patient feet successfully trod for more than three- 
quarters of a century. 

Although she " was not " after he passed his seventeenth year, yet her 
beneficent influence never ceased to be felt, and the habit of close and dili- 
gent research into the glorious realm of science and religion which char- 
acterized his long life had their incipiency and received their character 
from the firm, wise, loving, guiding tutorage of the brave, intelligent woman 
he called mother, and whose superior character, shining like the September 
setting sun, irradiated the broad expanse of the horizon of her dutiful son, 
Alexander Means, A.M., M.D., D.D., LL.D., F.R.S., of Oxford, Georgia. 



94 



CiltllCVlUC ^UbCCCa ^^IVVIJ J^tUUtOU, the nioiher of Georgia's 
sweetest poet, Frank L. Stanton, was born at Kewah Island, South Carolina, 
in 1834. She was of good English stock. 

In this peaceful sea-girt isle her young life was passed. The vastness 
of the great deep ever present with its mysteries, its sunlit waves and raging 
tempests, she early imbibed a pure and reverent spirit, with a fine poetical 
temperament. She married Valentine Stanton in 1854. 

Her son, Frank L. Stanton, speaking of her says: " My mother had me 
memorize all the Psalms, and at a very early age I knew, through her influ- 
ence, almost every hymn in the Methodist Hymn-book, and my first work as 
a boy of twelve years was the writing of hymns." Mr. \'alentine L. Stanton 
is another son. 

She passed into her rest at St. Mathews, South Carolina, in 1881, and 
this is the tribute her son Frank pays to her : 

'■ Her's was a life of gentleness, and the end thereof was peace. Her's 
were sweet sympathies, and sorrows sanctified by Love; that love which 
bears the cross — not for the crown, but for its love's sweet sake. Her's 
were sweet ministrations on crimson Calvaries where lives were crucified. 
For her the storms of life, as for us all ; but ever through the darkness 
streamed the light of Love and Hope, and drifting at last to the dreams, 
she only passed from light to light. The hand that pens these lines paid 
long since this imperfect tribute to her radiant memory : 

" Thou shalt have grace where glory is forgot. 
Thy star all luminous in the world's last night : 
Thy children's arms shall be thy necklace bright, 
And all Love's roses clamber to thy cot. 
And if a storm one steadfast star shall blot 
From thy clear heaven, God's angels shall re-light 
The lamps for thee and make the darkness white. 
The lilies of his love shall be thy lot. 
He shall give all his angels charge of thee. 
Thy coming and thy going shall be known; 
Their steps shall shine before thee radiantly. 
Lest thou should'st dash thy foot against a stone. 
The Cross still stands : Who will that Love condemn 
Whose mother-lips kissed Christ at Bethlehem? " 



The Mothers of 

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95 



The Mothers of 

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^aUUall i^OX'tX Jviug. Thomas Butler King was the eighth son of 
Captain Daniel King, of the Revolution, and of Hannah Lord, his wife, 
who were married at New London, Connecticut, 1780. 

Hannah Lord, born 1757, was fifth in descent from Thomas and 
Dorothy Lord, who emigrated to New England, 1635, on ship " Elizabeth 
and Ann," and were among the first landed proprietors of Hartford, Con- 
necticut. Their eldest son, Richard, was Secretary of the Colony, Captain 
of the first troop of horse, 1657-60, Member of the Assembly, and a patentee 
of Charter of Charles H. His tombstone still stands in New London, with 
its cjuaint epitaph, beginning, " The flower of our Cavalry here lieth." 

Hannah Lord was the mother of nine sons who lived to manhood. Her 
beauty, dignity, and womanly grace left its impression upon her children, 
who always spoke of her with love and reverence. 

Her sister Ann, having married Col. Zebulon Butler, the families moved 
to Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, where, on the death of his parents, Thomas 
Butler was taken to the home of his cousin and guardian, John Lord 
Butler. 

Mr. King, while on a visit South, met Miss Anne Page, the only child 
of Major William Page, of St. Simon's Island, and their marriage, December 
2, 1824, determined his after career. Mr. King henceforth identified him- 
self with Georgia, and devoted his life to her interests. 

Sound in health of body and mind, of perfectly temperate habits, and of 
great energy, with beauty of person and peculiar charm of manner, with un- 
failing kindness of heart and cheerful temper, he made the happiness of his 
family. 

He increased the plantation left by Major Page, introducing improve- 
ments in drainage and cultivation far in advance of the period. He was 
devoted to the well-being of the negroes, who loved him with touching 
enthusiasm, often declaring, " Ther's no gentleman like our Massa," and on 
his returns home, how often have I seen them crov/d around him, kissing 
his hands, and he with a kindly word for each one. 

It has been truly said, he was fifty years in advance of his time, and so 
failed to reap the fruit of enterprises owing their inception to his foresight. 
He worked enthusiastically for Brunswick, Georgia, investing large stims of 
money in canal and railroad. 

He represented Georgia sixteen years in Congress, and, as Chairman 
of Naval Affairs, secured appropriations which established the Collins Line, 
the Pacific Mail, and other beneficial legislation, for which he was publicly 
complimented in New York and Boston, and invited to return home on a 
naval cruiser. 

During these years he was among the foremost in the hard fight for 
Southern rights which preceded the War of Secession. Sent throughout 
California after the Mexican War with a military escort, his " Report " 
startled the country with statements long since become well-known facts, 

96 



and as first collector of the port of San Francisco, he aided materially in 
establishing law and order in that wild community. 

He was sent by Governor Brown to Europe, 1861, as Commissioner 
from Georgia. 

Had his advice been followed to ship cotton to England while yet time, 
there to establish a gold credit for the South, and build swift blockade run- 
ners, it would have been of great service. 

Meanwhile, during the frequent absence of the father, the brave mother 
remained at home, overlooking the education of her nine children, selecting 
their tutors, managing her large household, and directing the plantations. 
Personally she gave daily attention to the sick, and was ready to listen and 
to sympathize with those who, from childhood to age, were under her 
motherly care to provide with clothing, food, and religious instruction. 

How little is known of the active, unceasing occupation attending the 
Hfe of the true Southern matron, full of energy and self-devotion, teaching 
her children and people lessons from her own life of self-denial and honor, 
love and hospitality. 

For the home was one of joyfulness. Good hunting and riding pro- 
vided for the young ; the evenings bright with music ; charming books read 
aloud ; hospitality freely offered and returned by the pleasant neighbor- 
hood. The home beautiful and presided over by the gentle, loving Christian 
mother. 

Then came death, and war swiftly followed, driving the family from the 
island. The four remaining sons entered the Confederate .'\rmy. Of these, 
Captain Henry Lord King, an A. D. C. on the stafY of General McLaws, was 
killed at Fredericksburg. Virginia ; Col. Mallory P. King served as a staff 
officer to Generals Smith, Gist, Watthall, and iMcLaws : J. Floyd King 
became a colonel of artillery, and after the war was for eight years a member 
of Congress from Louisiana ; R. Cuyler King was a Captain of Sharp- 
shooters, and was taken prisoner at the battle of Nashville and confined at 
Johnson's Island. 



the Mothers of 

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Georgians 



97 



The Mothers of 

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J»aVltll ^\\\X lloUStOUU ^ndCVSOll was the only child of Robert 
James Houstoun and Miss AIcQueen, all born in Savannah, Georgia. Her 
mother dying when Sarah Ann was quite a child, she was adopted by her 
aunt, Mrs. Jane Woodruff, of New Jersey, and at the age of nineteen married 
Captain John Wayne Anderson, of Savannah, Georgia. The wedding took 
place at " Oakland," the beautiful country seat of Mr. and Mrs. Woodruff, on 
the banks of the Delaware, three miles from Trenton, October 8, 1834. 

Her father, Robert James Houstoun, was the youngest child of Sir 
George Houstoun, whose grandfather. Sir Patrick Houstoun, was induced to 
leave Scotland and join General Oglethorpe in 1735, two years after Georgia 
was settled, and was in charge of that colony whenever General Oglethorpe 
was absent on his visits to England. 

Sarah Ann Houstoun was the mother of eight children, among whom 
were Gen. Robert Houstoun Anderson, who was a graduate of West Point, 
and appointed a Brigadier-General of Cavalry in the Confederate Army. 
Major George Wayne Anderson, Commander of Confederate forces at Fort 
McAllister, Georgia; John Wayne Anderson, Captain in General Cleburne's 
division under Gen. Joseph E. Johnson ; Clarence Gordon Anderson, of 
marked executive ability ; Clifford Wallace Anderson, Mrs. Eliza Clifford 
Chisholm, and two children who died in infancy. 

She was far above the average in musical attainment, a woman of deep 
thought and reflection, brave and fearless in her opinions, generous and 
affectionate by nature, and a most brilliant conversationalist. Her faith was 
that of a little child, and yet most profound. Brought into contact with 
iier, the eye, the ear, the mind, the heart and soul were fascinated and irre- 
sistibly impressed. Educated under the old regime, there was in her mind 
a horror of " shams " of ah kinds, and a great love for " the true, beautiful, 
and good." In addition to these graces of mind and heart, Sarah Ann 
Houstoun possessed a strong individuality and great personal beauty ; she 
was an earnest Christian and a devoted member of the Independent Pres- 
byterian Church of Savannah, Georgia. 

She was born in Savannah in 1814, and died in that city, June 26, 1868, 
at the age of fifty-four. 



98 




SARAH ANN HOUSTOUN ANDERSON 



The Mothers of 

Some 

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l^ttllVCJUVCttC 3>XaC^''UcVS0n ^CVViCU, the mother of Judge John 
MacPherson Berrien, was born in Philadelphia. She was the daughter of 
Capt. John MacPherson, who came to Ainerica in 1746, and married Mar- 
garet Rogers, sister of Dr. John Rogers, the noted divine. Her father was 
captain in the Provincial Navy and commanded the " Britannia," was a 
brave soldier during the wars between England, France, and Spain, and 
was wounded nine times in battle. Capt. John MacPherson, Jr., Margarette's 
brother, aid-de-camp to General Montgomery, shared with him a sohlier's 
death before the walls of Quebec in 1775. Margarette's brother, William, 
received a major's commission from Washington, and fought under Wayne 
and LaFayette; he was a brave man and became a general in the United 
States army. The ancestry of Margarette MacPherson is traced back con- 
tinuously to the head of the great chief, the Clan Chattan, during the reign 
of David I., who, having devoted himself to the service of the church, be- 
came Abbot of Kingussie. The son of the Chief Ewan, the celebrated chief 
of the forty-five, was a first cousin of her father. 

In 1780, Margarette MacPherson married Major John Berrien, the son 
of Judge John Berrien, a justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, and a 
friend of W'ashington. Major Berrien took his bride to his father's house, 
at Rocky Ford near Princeton ; this house has become historical. When the 
Continental Congress moved from Philadelphia to Princeton, General Wash- 
ington enjoyed the hospitality of his friend Judge Berrien at his home at 
Rocky Ford, and at this house wrote and delivered his farewell address to 
his army. It was at this house that John MacPherson Berrien was born 
on August 22,. 1781. 

Shortly after the evacuation of Savannah, by Gen. Alured Clark and the 
King's Forces, in June, 1782, Major John Berrien removed his family from 
New Jersey and made his home in the commercial metropolis of Georgia. 
The educational advantages of the South were limited, and Major Berrien 
sent his son to school in New York, at Nassau Hall, where he received his 
B.A. degree at the early age of fifteen. Returning to Georgia he entered 
the law office of Hon. Joseph Clay ; in his eighteenth year he was called 
to the bar, ten years later he became solicitor general of the eastern circuit, 
and before he attained his thirtieth year he was elected judge of the circuit. 
While upon the bench, the United States became involved in a second war 
with Great Britian. Judge Berrien served in a double capacity, as minister 
of the law and colonel of cavalry. Upon the termination of his judicial 
labors, Mr. Berrien was elected to the legislature from Chatham County. 
So commanding was the influence wielded by Judge Berrien during his 
short term of service in the general assembly of this Commonwealth, that 
he was in 1824 elected to the senate of the United States. When he took 
his seat in that august body, he had not attained the forty-fourth year of his 
age. Such, however, was the maturity of his views, such the breadth of his 
information, so exact his knowledge, so admirable his diction, so dignified 

L. cf 0. 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



his deportment, and so impressive his intellectual and social demeanor, that 
Chief Justice Marshall stj'led him " the honey-tongued Georgia youth." 
Resigning from the senate in March, 1829, he accepted the position of 
attorney-general of the United States in the cabinet of President Andrew- 
Jackson, the duties of this ofhce he discharged for more than three years. 
The New York " Press " in 1830, in its sketches of public characters says of 
him, " In the senate he was a model for chaste, free, beautiful elocution. He 
seems to be the only man that Webster softened his voice to when he turned 
from his seat to address him. The public of all parties have great confidence 
in him, and he stands fair for high promotion, etc." 

After resigning his ofhce of attorney-general. President Jackson ten- 
dered to Judge Berrien the mission to England. This tempting compli- 
ment was declined for private considerations. He returned to his home in 
Savannah, Georgia, and resumed the practice of his profession. 

On March 4, 1841, Mr. Berrien resumed his seat in the United States 
senate, was reelected in 1847, and in May 1852 he resigned, and in the 
seventy-first year of his age laid aside the public mantle which he had so 
long worn without a blemish. He was the companion of Calhoun, Clay, 
Webster, Hayne, Benton, Crittendon, Tombs, Stephens, and many others. 
This was a period when mighty men constituted the National Councils, 
great measures were fairly discussed by intellectual giants and statesman 
of enlightened views. As a contemporary has well said of him, " He was 
indeed a man whose equal in many respects the world has not produced 
since the days of Cicero." 

In November, 1784, after a painful illness of two months, death came 
to Margarette MacPherson Berrien, at the home of Mr. George Baillee, in 
Liberty County, and she left behind her a life filled to overflowing with 
good deeds of love and kindness. During the Revolution, Margarette Mac- 
Pherson, who, with an only sijter inherited a handsome property, gave 
her jewelry and silverware to be used in paying the Continental troops. 



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JULIA ADELAIDE ERWIN HOWELL 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



guUil JlrtcUliclc liVXUin ^OXUCU, the mother of Hon. Clark 
Howell, the editor-in-chief of the " Atlanta Constitution," and Mr. Albert 
Howell, of the general counsel of the Southern Railway Company for 
Georgia, was, before her marriage. Miss Julia Adelaide Erwin, of Erwinton, 
Barnwell District, South Carolina. She was the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. 
William Erwin of that place, and was born there January 17, 1842. 

Among her lineal ancestors was Landgrave Smith, one of South Caro- 
lina's early governors, one of the famous Huguenot colonists of that region, 
whose names and deeds full so many brilliant chapters of our history. 

Miss Julia was one of several children, and she lived in a charming old 
Southern mansion, enjoying the ideal existence of those golden days when 
the beauty, chivalry, brains, and culture of the Palmetto State were potential 
influences in the society of the whole continent. In her delightful home 
she grew up, a recognized belle, loved and admired by all who knew her for 
her beauty, her bright intellect, and those winsome qualities and graces 
which are among the sweetest charms of womanhood. 

She was a girl of nineteen when her soldier lover, Evan P. Howell, a 
gallant young artillery officer from Georgia, who had been stationed at 
Pensacola, stopped for a day at Erwinton on his way to join Lee's army in 
Virginia, in June, 1861. The two had been engaged for some months and 
the Georgian urged her to marry him before he went to the front. The 
young lady was patriotic as well as true, and she consented. There was a 
hurried wedding, and Captain Howell resumed his journey to the scene of 
war. He obtained a brief furlough soon afterwards, and was able to carry 
his bride to his home in Atlanta, after which he joined his command, and 
fought with distinguished bravery throughout the war. 

Li this brief chapter it would be impossible to tell the story of Mrs. 
Howell's life during the four years of our great civil conflict. Like other 
noble Southern women of that period, her thoughts were centered upon her 
loved one and his comrades, who were following the banner of the Confed- 
eracy, and she gave her days and nights to devising and carrying out plans 
for their aid and comfort. She was trained in a school which made heroines, 
and the trials and dangers of those wartime days doubtless had much to do 
with llie formation of lier character and her practical methods. 

After the surrender, her husband entered upon a remarkably successful 
career at the bar, in politics, and in journalism, and soon became one of 
the most popular and influential men in his State. His son, Mr. Clark 
Howell, who succeeded him when he retired from the chief editorship of 
" The Constitution." is now a young man of thirty-six, who has made him- 
self felt as a power in journalism and in politics. He is a member of the 
National Democratic Executive Committee; is one of the board of directors 
of the Associated Press ; was speaker of the Georgia House of Represent- 
atives at twenty-seven years of age. and has held many other high and 
responsible positions. No Southerner of his age has a more promising 



The Mothers of 

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Distinguished 

Georgians 



future, and no one doubts his ability to satisfactorily continue the leader- 
ship which he has rightfully won by sheer merit. His brother Albert, two 
years his junior, has been equally successful in his profession, and ranks with 
the first lawyers of Georgia. Only thirty-four, he is magnetic and eloquent, 
and it is safe to predict for him great success in his profession and also in 
public life. 

Mrs. Howell has five other children ; the youngest a son, Evan P. 
Howell, Jr. ; the others are girls, between the ages of Clark and Albert. 
Two of them are married. Of her seven children, all are living. The 
destroying angel has been merciful to this happy family. 

The handsome mansion of Captain Howell, at West End, a beautiful 
suburb of .Vtlanta, is one of the most hospitable and charming houses to be 
found anywhere, and the most famous men and women of the nation have 
been its guests. Mrs. Howell cares but little for society, however. She 
loves her home, and is devoted to the Christian church, of which she has 
been a devout member for many years. Next to ministering to the wants 
of her husband and children, her chief pleasure consists in those sweet and 
necessary works of religion and charity, which gladden the hearts of the 
sick, the sad, and the suffering. Still youthful looking, with the light of her 
radiant soul illumining her bright eyes, Mrs. Howell is generally beloved in 
every circle where she is known, and the loving friend or neighbor who 
would point to her as his ideal of a wife and mother would make no mistake, 
but would simi^ly pay her a deserved tribute. 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



G^itthcViUC gaUCnpOVt goHustOU, the mother of Ricliard Mal- 
cohn Johnston, was born in Charlotte County, Virginia, February 4, 1780. 
Her father, John Davenport, was descended from the Connecticut family 
of that name, though his branch of the family had long been resident 
in Virginia. He was killed at the battle of Guilford Court House, when 
a very young man, being then not beyond his early twenties. Before 
going into the battle he had premonition that he would be killed, and with 
this thought in his mind, asked and received promise from his friend, Henry 
Burney, that in such e\'ent, he would give messages to his widow and chil- 
dren, and keep friendly interest in them. He was killed in the early begin- 
ning of battle, dropping" by the side of his friend, who not only did last offices 
for him, and fulfilled all promises, but, in about two years, married his 
widow, and was a most beloved stepfather to his children. There were chil- 
dren born of this second marriage, and Mrs. Johnston was ever fond of 
relating to her children many incidents that attested the happy and affec- 
tionate relations that had existed in her mother's household. Her family 
emigrated to Georgia within a few years of the time at which the Johnstons 
also emigrated from Virginia, and while both families, Johnstons and Daven- 
ports, came from Charlotte County, they had not lived near together, and 
had not been at all acquainted in their mother State. Catherine Davenport 
had first married Mr. Byrom, and was a widow with several children when 
she married Malcolm Johnston. Of this happy marriage with Mr. Johnston 
there were eight children born, four sons and four daughters, Richard Mal- 
colm being next youngest of all the children, and youngest of the sons. 

In appearance Mrs. Johnston was of attractive, refined presence, being 
a little above medium height, of slender figure and quiet, graceful move- 
ment : her skin was very fair, her hair silky, soft, and dark, and her eyes dark 
l^lue, " a wonderful dark blue," as her son always spoke of them. In ap- 
jiearance and character she was much in contrast with her husband, who, 
though greatly beloved, and noted for his just judgment in all matters, was 
bold and positive in speech and full of almost aggressive energy. He never 
weighed less than two hundred pounds after reaching manhood, and was six 
feet tall in his stockings, with the Scotch high cheekbones and florid color- 
ing; she, on the other hand, was of a most retiring disposition, and within 
recollection of her youngest children, often melancholy. Her eldest son, 
Albon Johnston, who was a young man of fine physique and much promise 
in character, died at the age of twenty-one years from an attack of typhoid 
fever, when Richard Malcolm was only a few years old. It was said that her 
smile was never again merry, but only gentle, full of sympathy and ofttimes 
pathetic. Her home life and duties were her absorbing interests, except in 
instances of sickness or sorrow among neighbors, when she was ever among 
the first to respond with kindness and sympathy. She was especially cares- 
sing and tender with Richard Malcolm, who was considered a delicate child 
by her, though he had become robust and tall when he entered Mercer Uni- 

103 



The Mothers 0/ 

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Distinguished 

Georgians 



versity at the age of sixteen. It was during this college life that, though a 
diligent student, he seldom failed to ride home on horseback, a distance of 
sixteen miles, on Saturday afternoon, to be with his mother, then an invalid, 
until the next afternoon ; and at such times he would sit often upon the stool, 
now always at her feet, and, laying his hands upon her knees, have her stroke 
his hair as she talked — a caressing w'ay she had ever had with him. He has 
been known to say that he had never heard her voice raised in anger, though 
she had warned him often and earnestly against temptations of all kinds as 
he was approaching manhood, and had punished him, when a child, in the 
old-fashioned way with lively switchings. in:mediately after which he would 
feel entirely repentant for whatever small sin he may have committed, and 
never left her presence after such occurrence without her kissing him, and 
his feeling sure of her love and justice. 

She died September 24, 1S42, at " Oak Grove." the old plantation home- 
stead in Hancock County, and was buried in the family burying-ground 
there, to which legal rights were reserved when the plantation was sold 
many years after her death. Richard Malcolm visited this spot every year 
of his life that circitmstances made possible. This beloved mother's memory 
was as fresh and dear to him in his old age as it had been in his )"outh, and 
among his aspirations was the one that he might attain unto the ineffable 
sweetness of heart that made her a blessing to all who came within touch of 
her life. 



104 



The Mothers of 

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Georgians 



^Xarttta ^OSSC ^ilUJton, the mother of Gen. Alexander Robert 
Lavvton, of Georgia, was Alartha Mosse, daughter of Dr. George Mosse and 
his wife, who was a Miss Norton. She was born on St. Helena Island, 
Buford District, South Carolina, on September 5, 1788. 

About the middle of the eighteenth century Dr. George Mosse, an Irish 
physician, and a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, with his wife 
emigrated to America and settled in South Carolina, in Beauford District, 
on the fertile sea island of St. Helena. At the same time the Norton family 
came from England and settled at the same place. Shortly after their arrival 
the wife of Dr. Mosse died, and in the course of time he married Miss Nor- 
ton, the daughter of his fellow emigrant. Seven daughters came of this 
second marriage, all of whom were married and settled in life before the 
death of their father. Of these daughters the sixth was Martha. 

But little is known, by the third generation, of the early life of Martha 
Mosse. That those early adventurous spirits whom fortune led to the lu.x- 
urious climate of the Southern seaboard were spared the rigors and priva- 
tions which attended those in the Eastern States we well know ; lapped in 
soft, semi-tropical surroundings, with the ever-changing panorama of the 
sea, life was a thing to enjoy. 

We have no record how Martha Mosse passed her girlhood days, but 
that she made good use of her time we know. For soon she is the wife of a 
distinguished man, ruling his house and slaves with grace and ability. On 
November 15, 1809, she was married to Col. Alexander James Lawton, of 
St. Peter's parish, Beauford District, South Carolina. Of this marriage 
came twelve children, Alexander Robert being the fourth, born November 
4, 1818. In 1835, at the age of sixteen, he was entered at West Point Mili- 
tary Academ3^ He never saw his mother again after this appointment, for 
before his furlough came his mother had died, July 26, 1836. That Mrs. 
Lawton was a woman of strong character, of culture and refinement, clearly 
appears from the influence she naturally exercised upon the lives of her 
children. She was of deeply religious nature, steadfast in her belief in the 
faith of the Baptist Church, and a constant member of it, whence all her 
children followed her guiding steps, and by their lives attest her Christian 
influence. 

In 1839 Alexander Robert Lawton graduated as second lieutenant of 
artillery, but resigned, and attended Harvard Law School. In 1843 he 
established his home in Savannah, Georgia, and lived there until the Civil 
War made it possible for him to achieve the renown he did in several depart- 
ments as brigadier-general of the Confederate Army, in command of the 
military district of Georgia. He also served with distinction in \'irginia 
under Stonewall Jackson, and in command of Lawton's Brigade was 
wounded at battle of Sharpsburg. 

He was Presidential Elector when member of the convention which 
nominated Hancock, and later a Cleveland elector. In 1885 he was nomin- 

105 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 

ated by President Cleveland as Minister to Russia, but was ineligible accord- 
ing to the fourteenth amendment. Tlie first private act of the next Con- 
gress was the removing of General Lawton's political disabilities, and in 1887 
President Cleveland conferred on him the mission to Austria-Hungary, 
where he conducted himself and maintained diplomatic relations with marked 
acceptability. 



106 




ANNE H. DUNHAM 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



J^nUC Jt. ^IVUham, the mother of Bradford Dunham, departed this 
Hfe I\Iay 14, 1854, at the early age of thirty-five years, leaving her husband 
and four children to mourn their irreparable loss. 

She was a faithful and loving wife, and hers was a brave and loyal 
nature. Despite her fluctuating health she was always doing for her family; 
she loved them and loved her home. 

Her husband's people loved her, and were never happier than when 
visiting at her home. 

The first few years of her married life were spent near Sunbury, on a 
large plantation; my father was a planter; she often told me of those deligiit- 
ful years. She had attended school in that town during her girlhood, and 
formed friendships among the people. Three or four years after this time 
she married and went near there to live. The many pleasant visitors at her 
home were very delightful to her social nature. The utmost good feeling 
prevailed between the inhabitants of Sunbury ; doubtless many of these social 
as well as spiritual blessings, which were also added to them, were direct 
consequences of the true amiability and sincere piety of Rev. Charles O. 
Scriven, in whom they had perfect confidence. 

From my earliest recollections her health was feeble, being predisposed 
to consumption, which baleful disease finally caused her death. 

She was loyal to God also; early in life she sought her dear Saviour, 
making a public profession of faith. She was a consistent Christian, and a 
praying Christian ; she not only prayed for us, but she prayed with us. Chil- 
dren never forget the mother who kneels beside them, and ofifers prayers to 
God for them, though those children may live to be old people, and be drifted 
far apart from each other, and far away from the old home, by the years which 
roll between childhood and old age. In the still quiet hours which must some 
time come to all, memory goes back to the childhood's home, the dear 
father, the gentle, loving mother, and the other children who played with us 
around their hearthstone : and we remember her prayers for us, and lift up 
our hearts in silent supplication to our mother's God, that He will teach us 
to pray for ourselves. 

All time could not efface the picture of that death-bed scene, when 
she called her four children to her bedside and gave them her parting wishes 
and her last goodby. x^fter she had ceased talking with us. Rev. A. S. 
Morrall stood beside her and repeated the twenty-third Psalm, and we all 
knew she " was passing through the valley of the shadow of death." 
She spoke no more after that, and in a few short hours she had gone 
from us. 

Mrs. Anne H. Dunham was the daughter of Capt. John Harris, the 
granddaughter of Capt. William Harris. She was born March 19, 181 5, 
and was married to Mr. Thomas J. Dunham, of Liberty County, Georgia, 
January 19, 1834, at Eagle Neck Church, in Mcintosh County, Georgia, by 
Rev. Mr. McDonald, an Irishman, who had been a Roman Catholic priest, 

107 



The Mothers of 

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Georgians 



but seceded from that faith and became a poor Baptist preacher, with nought 
of this world's goods except a preacher's pay. 

She was the mother of four children, one daughter and three sons. Her 
youngest son, Jacob, died in childhood. Her second son, Thomas, had but 
just reached the years of manhood in the stormy days of 1861 ; he was a 
member of the Georgia Hussars, of Savannah, and with that cavalry he went 
to the front in Virginia as orderly sergeant of that company. Doubtless 
there are some living at this time who remember the " midnight ambus- 
cade " near Burke's Station, in Virginia, on the old Braddock Road, by the 
Third New Jersey Volunteers, which surprised a squad of twenty-four Con- 
federates, December 5, 1861, where Sergeant Dunham, after a desperate 
sabre fight, w'as wounded and taken prisoner. He received the bullet in his 
head that night which caused his death, though he lived until after the close 
of the war. 

Her oldest son, Mr. Bradford Dunham, general manager of the Plant 
system of railways, is the only one of this dear mother's sons now living. 
Father and mother and brothers all lie toegther, " where gravestone shadows 
mark the circling hours." 



108 



The Mothers of 

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CyntUla ^UmUCV i>lcU^ the wife of Major Benjamin Mell, of 
Liberty County, Georgia, was a woman of strong and beautiful character. 
Not only was she deeply loved and honored by her family and immediate 
friends, but she made a lasting impression upon all who knew her. The late 
Dr. John Jones, an eminent Presbyterian minister of Georgia, was a play- 
mate and schoolfellow of her children. More than fifty years after her 
death in writing to a friend, he said : 

" Dr. Alell's mother was a woman of marked individuality of character, 
intellectual, and a truly godly woman, brought up in the strictest mode of 
old Congregationalism and, no doubt, perfectly familiar with the West- 
minster Shorter Catechism, which was thoroughly taught in old Midway 
Church in ancient and in modern times. Dr. Mell was all Sumner, a perfect 
reproduction of his mother in form, in features, in character, and in mind, 
proving the old saying ' that men of mark are chiefly indebted to their 
mothers for their superiority.' " 

Cynthia Sumner was the daughter of Capt. Thomas Sunmer and Anna 
Baker. Her parents belonged to the famous Midway Church settlement 
of Liberty County. From the time the first Puritan colony was sent forth 
from Dorchester, England, to Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1630; from 
thence, in 1696, to Dorchester, South Carolina, " to encourage religion in 
the Southern plantations"; and lastly, in 1752, when they settled in Dor- 
chester, Georgia, the history of this people has shown that they were remark- 
able for piety, intelligence, and patriotisiu. 

Bishop Stevens in his " History of Georgia " says, " The accession of 
such a people was an honor to Georgia, and has ever proved one of its rich- 
est blessings. The sons of that colony have shown themselves worthy of 
their sires ; their sires were the moral and intellectual nobility of the 
province." 

'■ Capt. Thomas Sumner was a son of Edward Sumner, one of the foiuid- 
ers of Midway Church, and a descendant of William Sumner, of Bicester, 
Oxford County, England, who came to New England in 1636, and settled in 
Dorchester, Massachusetts. Two of his sons, Samuel and Increase, joined 
the colony which came to South Carolina in 1696: three sons remained in 
Massachusetts and founded the Sumner family of New England and the 
Northern States." — Appleton's Sunnier Genealogy. 

Anna Baker was the daughter of Richard Baker, another pioneer colo- 
nist, and Elizabeth Andrew, who was a sister of Hon. Benjamin Andrew, and 
a descendant of Daniel Andrew, mentioned in Upham's " History of the 
Salem Witchcraft," as a man of culture and high standing, who protested 
vigorously against the cruel folly of the persecutions. Elizabeth Andrew- 
Baker w-as left a widow before the Revolution ; forced to fly from home dur- 
ing that period, she found a refuge among friends in South Carolina, and 
many stories are told of her fearless patriotism and devoted piety. The diary 
of her daughter, Anna Baker Sumner, is still in existence, a precious posses- 

109 



I'he Mothers of 

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^W 



sion, yellow with age, but a glorious testimony to the deep piety and un- 
wavering faith of herself and her kindred. She describes the triumphant 
Christian death of her mother, and chronicles her own marriage and the 
notable events of her life. 

Cynthia Sumner was born March 25, 1790, upon her father's plantation, 
near Midway Church. She was left an orphan before she was two years of 
age, and hved with her oldest sister, Sarah, the wife of Dr. Lathrop Holmes. 
This gentleman was from Boston, and was an uncle of Oliver Wendell 
Holmes. Dr. Holmes was a man of rare intelligence and education, and a 
kind brother to the four little orphan sisters of his wife. This home was 
broken up in April, 1801, when Dr. and Mrs. Holmes, with her two sisters, 
Mary and Anne, sailed for New York upon their annual summer trip and 
" were never heard of more." Only one dearly loved sister now remained, 
the wife of Thomas Bacon (the grandfather of Senator A. O. Bacon). The 
little girl was most kindly and tenderly cared for by them, and Mr. Bacon, 
after the death of his wife, continued to be a true friend to Cynthia and her 
family during his whole lifetime. On February 9. 1807, at the age of seven- 
teen, she was married from her sister's home to Benjamin Mell, of South 
Carolina, a handsome, lovable, genial young man of good circumstances, 
who settled in Liberty County. 

Two years after this marriage Mrs. Bacon died, leaving her the last of 
her family. About this time she made public profession of the faith which 
had always been her strength and consolation, and united with the church 
of her fathers at Midway. She was the mother of nine children, three of 
whom died young. 

Her son, Patrick Hues Mell, was born July 19, 1814. From his birth 
he was the subject of her daily prayers that he might become a minister of 
God, and give his entire life to the Master's service. 

In 18 16, her cousin, the Rev. Thomas Sumner Winn, took charge of the 
Baptist Church at Sunbury. His brief ministry covered only three years, 
but is described as " grand and glorious " : he exerted the strongest influence 
while he lived, and left the deepest and most lasting impression when he 
died, of any man who ever lived in that community. Under his powerful 
preaching Mrs. Mell left the Congregational Church and joined the Baptists. 
She writes in her diary, " Most blessed Lord, may it be that as I have fol- 
lowed Thy example in baptism, that I may be enabled to follow more of Thy 
precepts and example in every other respect." Her life from this period 
was one of entire consecration. " She walked in all the commandments of 
the Lord blameless." It was said of her that she was a saintly woman, rich 
in all Christian virtues, purity, patience, kindness, charity, faith, devotion. 
In cases of severe illness Mrs. Mell was always sent for to pray with the sick, 
" her prayers were so strengthening and comforting." Twenty years after 
her death one of her sons lay very ill at the house of a friend, and it was 
said by the community, " We must give James our tenderest care and most 



earnest prayers for his recovery, for his mother, Mrs. Mell, was such a good 
and lovely woman." 

Heavy trials cast their shadows over her last days, but she bore them 
with patience and resignation, cheering and comforting her husband and 
children in the domestic difficulties caused by financial losses. Major Ben- 
jamin Mell was a man sympathetic and generous to a fault. In an evil hour 
he went security for a friend in trouble: the result was that the greater part 
of his estate was swept away, and his family placed in very reduced circum- 
stances. Friends offered help, but Major Mell refused assistance with an 
independence that was almost too sensitive and proud. His losses preyed 
upon his health, and he died in 1828, two years after his misfortunes. His 
devoted wife followed him a few months later, leaving six young orphans to 
struggle with poverty ; her comfort in dying as in living lay in the promises 
of Scripture ; and the saying, " I have not seen the righteous forsaken nor his 
seed begging bread " was verified, for the young family had many friends 
who advised and sympathized with them, and enabled them to successfully 
solve the problems of their life. 

Shortly before her death she wrote two letters to her son Patrick, a lad 
of fifteen, who was away at school. These letters show the tenderest mater- 
nal affection and the deepest anxiety for the welfare of his soul. Space for- 
bids the publication of these beautiful letters, but they were carefully pre- 
served, together with her diary, by her son during the whole of his long life. 
The anxiety and love so strongly shown in these letters go to prove how 
potent are the prayers, the earnest solicitations, and Christian influence of a 
mother's life over the future well-being and good fortunes of a loved son. 
The mother did not live to see the fruits of her work on the young life, but 
the long years of usefulness given Dr. Mell show how great was the harvest 
that came from the seed his mother so carefully planted in the rich soil. God 
answered her prayers by giving to the country a noble life, whose influence 
was felt for more than fifty years through the length and breadth of this 
Southern land. 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



III 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



^IVVCllC lloxuavd COOPCV I^tXcU, wife of Dr. p. H. Mali, of Athens, 
Georgia, was born in Montgomery County, Georgia, February 15, 
1819. Slie was the daughter of George Cooper and Nancy Conner, and 
granddaughter of the Rev. Wilson Conner, a noted Baptist minister in the 
early days of this century. Her grandfather, Richard Cooper, moved from 
North Carolina soon after the Revolution and settled in Southern Georgia. 
Mr. George Cooper was a man of means and influence in his section, and 
gave all of his children fine advantages in education. Young Patrick Mell 
taught school in Montgomery County, and Lurene Cooper was one of 
his pupils. She was a beautiful, graceful girl with a sweet sunshiny nature, 
fond of music and merriment, yet brim full of good comon sense, with a 
character of sterling worth. The friendship between teacher and scholar 
soon ripened into strong affection, and they were married on June 29, 
1840, while Mr. Mell was principal of the Preparatory School connected 
with Emory College, at Oxford, Georgia. In 1841 he was elected Professor 
of Ancient Languages in Mercer University, and they lived for fifteen years 
in Penfield, and then came to Athens in 1856, when Dr. Mell accepted a 
chair in the University of Georgia. This companion of his young man- 
hood's days lived for twenty-one years as his devoted wife, who deeply 
sympathized with him in all the adversities and successes that lined his path- 
way, and who was able to intelligently aid him in all his plans, because she 
possessed a mind filled with fertile resources and well stored with useful 
knowledge. This union was blessed with eight children. She was a queen 
in her household, governing her servants with kindness and justice; exacting 
from her children the strictest obedience, yet giving them every innocent 
pleasure; she taught them herself, and gave each character special study and 
prayerful, w'atchful guidance. She was an old-fashioned mother, demand- 
ing the greatest respect and deference from her children, and leading them 
in giving their father the deepest reverence and affection. 

Plospitality was a pleasure and a duty with her ; friends and relatives 
were ever in the house, and all who knew her pay tribute to this day to her 
lovely character and firm, wise guidance of her household. Her servants 
obeyed her commands with pleasure; her children gave her unquestioning 
submission ; her husband looked upon her as a helpmate indeed, worthy of 
the deepest affection ; peace, order, and happiness reigned within the walls 
of her home, a blissful haven for both husband and children. 

She died suddenly on July 6, 1861, and there was a gloom cast over the 
home that time only was able to soften. The following tribute to her 
memory was written by Dr. A. A. Lipscomb, Chancellor of the Lhiiversity : 

" A beautiful character in early girlhood, fond of such pursuits as 
elevate and refine the opening heart, and cherishing those tastes that impart 
a genial glow to youthful affections, she grew up in the quiet of home with 
a steadiness of purpose, a serene thoughtfulness, a dignity of spirit, above 
her years. On reaching womanhood her mind expanded with those views 

112 



and feelings that experience and responsibility never fail to bring to a dis- 
ciplined nature. She entered on life's duties as aims and aspirations to 
cultivate her inward being no less than as obligations to be conscientiously 
discharged, accepting her sphere as a divine gift, and daily finding the smile 
of God and the peace of Christ in all its anxieties and tasks. For her clear- 
ness and force of intellect, for the gentle charms that add such grace to the 
intercourse of ordinary life, for the inbred sympathy that gives to manners 
the rank of a virtue and sheds such a welcome light over human fellowships: 
for these we admired her. But we loved her for qualities higher and nobler. 
She was a woman of lofty principles; possessing a sense of truth and right 
that was a law to her thoughts as well as actions, abiding firmly in her con- 
victions, and tenacious of them as fixed rules of action, and unselfishly striv- 
ing to make her existence a benediction and a joy to all around her. Such 
were the qualities of character that bound our hearts to her while living, and 
drew from them this humble tribute now that she is dead. 

" For some twenty-live years she was a consistent and faithful member 
of the Baptist Church, appreciating in the fulness of her heart its institu- 
tions, prizing its communion, and devoted to its interests. Her religious 
experience was uniform and progressive. Marked by no violent transitions, 
by no abrupt impulses, it was singularly equable and harmonious, rising as 
life advanced into higher views, deepening into an intenser trust, swelling 
into a richer joy, but always characterized by those traits that give stability 
and growth to Christian culture. Few persons have had less warning of 
approaching death, but she was found ready. The summons came at mid- 
night, but her lamp was burning and in its light she trod the dark valley." 



1'he Mothers <?/ 

Some 

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Georgians 



113 



The Mothers of 

Some 

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Georgians 



^nUil ^itcll 'SSllxitC, the mother of William N. White, of Athens, 
Georgia, was born near Stamford, Connecticut, January 15, 1795. She was 
a descendant of the well-known Fitch family of Connecticut; Thomas and 
James Fytche came from Bocking, county of Essex, England, to New Eng- 
land in the ship " Defiance," in 1638. Thomas settled in Norwalk, Connec- 
ticut, and was the ancestor of Thomas Fitch, the Governor of his native 
colony; Anna Fitch belonged to this line; her grandfather Seymour Fitch 
was a soldier in the Revolution. The Fitch family are fond of study and 
of literary pursuits, and claim among its members many clergymen, college 
professors, college presidents, and other educational workers. 

Anna Fitch was the daughter of Nathaniel Fitch and Anna Smith. Her 
father died about the time she was married, but her mother lived to a good 
old age. Mrs. Fitch was a woman of great intelligence and piety; a constant 
reader of good literature, a taste inherited by her descendants. After her 
husband's death she led regularly in family worship with her children, and 
she talked and prayed at the church meetings, although this was very un- 
usual for the women of those days. It was said that " 'her rocker was con- 
secrated," for her quiet moments were devoted to prayerful meditations; 
her grandchildren remember hearing her pray in the night "for her posterity 
to the latest generation "; and her prayers were answered for all of her chil- 
dren and grandchildren and most of her great-grandchildren have been faith- 
ful followers of her Master. 

In 1802, when Anna Fitch was seven years of age, her father took his 
family to Walton, New York, and became one of the first settlers of that 
lovely little town on the banks of the Delaware. Life is primitive in pio- 
neer regions, and Anna was well instructed in all domestic arts; some of 
their homespun and woven woollen blankets and linen sheets and table 
cloths are still in possession of the family, bearing testimony to the wonder- 
ful industry of those times. Mrs. Fitch was a woman of " faculty." and 
Anna inherited her energy and ability. 

September 16, 1818, she was married to Anson White, of Stamford, 
Connecticut, and they lived there until 1827, when they made their home 
in Walton, New York. After her marriage she was an invalid for several 
years, and confined to her bed for a long time. Still she kept perfect con- 
trol of the details of family life, and with great executive ability she managed 
her domestic matters from the dairy in the basement to the contents of 
the attic. After her removal to Walton her health began to improve, and 
although she was feeble until the end of her life she was able to actively 
superintend her home, and is described as a model housekeeper. William, 
her oldest child, was a bright, active boy with a keen imagination which led 
him to conceive and execute unheard of pranks; the younger children, of 
course, always followed him into all mischief, with the greatest admiration ; 
and many scrapes and adventures resulted. His father was good natured 
and indulgent, and a sense of amusement was often too strong for his sense 

114 



The Mothers of 

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Georgians 



of discipline ; but his mother was ahvays firm and decided, never yielding a 
point that she had made. When she pressed her hps together and said, 
" Say no more about it," no amount of teasing could move her from her 
position. She was proud of her gifted son, but she did not spoil him ; facile 
princcps, he took honors in all his preparatory schools and in his college 
classes, but his mother did not overvalue his abilities or feed his vanity with 
fond praises. 

She was greatly interested in church work, and especially in foreign 
missions, when this branch of church duties was in its infancy. She made 
one of her daughters a member of the Foreign Mission Society at the age 
of twelve; this daughter has paid her dues regularly for sixty-five years to 
the present day. She was one of the first to be interested in all moral reform 
movements, such as total abstinence, etc. 

Like her mother her love of reading was a passion, and her children 
were early accustomed to read aloud and listen to the best literature. Travels 
were especially popular, " Anson's Travels " (who has heard of it in these 
days?), " Captain Cook's Voyages," " Robinson Crusoe," and others down 
to Kane. Then there were " Silliman's Journal " and the " Dutchman's 
Fireside." Paulding, Cooper, and Scott delighted them in fiction, and there 
were worlds of pleasure found in Irving's works. When William went away 
to boarding-school and college, be would return always with fresh books 
for vacation reading; he was fond of repeating to her such poems as pleased 
him, and she would enjoy them as much as he did. 

With such maternal influences over his childhood and youth, he nat- 
urally grew up to a cultured, noble manhood. Her wise and careful train- 
ing, which never relaxed its vigilance and never allowed tenderness to con- 
done faults, the truth and nobility of her character, her excellent literary 
taste and intellectual gifts, all made a lasting impression upon his char- 
acter and life. He inherited from her a delicate constitution, and when 
he graduated he was obliged to come South for his health; he located in 
Athens, Georgia, where he soon became noted not only as a man of letters, 
but as an authority upon agricultural and horticultural matters. His " Gar- 
dening for the South," first published in 1856, is said to have worked wonders 
in improving Southern horticulture, and is still ranked as the best authority. 

In spite of her failing health, Anna Fitch White lived for nearly twenty 
years after her son came South. His visits North and frequent letters were 
the greatest pleasures of her later years. She died July 22, 1864; many 
months elapsed before he heard of her death, owing to the strict blockade 
maintained during the Civil War, and his pleasure in revisiting his old 
home afterward was sadly marred by the absence of its central figure. 

" Prompt et Certain " is the motto on the Fitch coat of arms, and it was 
exemplified in the life of Anna Fitch White. With judgment qviick to see 
the right thing, and determination to do it without delay, she discharged all 
life's duties faithfully, and is now reaping her eternal reward. 

"5 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



da\*a CovlunC ^UlgTlt, mother of Lucian Lamar Knight. Mrs. 
Knight's maiden name was Clara Corinne Daniel, her parents being 
Joshua and Mary Ann Lamar Daniel, and she was born at Lincolnton, 
in Lincoln County, Georgia. On her mother's side her ancestors were 
French Huguenots, and on her father's Scotch-Irish and English. Her 
mother, nee Mary Ann Lamar (daughter of Colonel Peter and Sarah 
Cobb Benning Lamar), possessed many strong individual traits, being 
equally distinguished for her superior gifts of mind, and for her rare 
force of character. Colonel Lamar's wealth and social position made 
him one of the most influential men of the State in ante-bellum times, 
and he was frequently called upon to represent his county in political 
conventions and legislative assemblies. He was one of that strong 
and brilliant family of Lamars whose members have illustrated Georgia 
during many generations, not only upon the field of battle, but in some of 
the loftiest positions of civic honor within the nation's gift. Likewise on 
her mother's side Mrs. Knight is connected with many other prominent 
Georgia families, such as the Cobbs and the Bennings. On her father's 
side she comes of equally good stock. Joshua Daniel stood high in the 
esteem of his fellow citizens, and held many important public offices. He 
was fearless and outspoken in his convictions, prompt and exact in meeting 
his obligations, and intolerant of whatever savors of hypocrisy and deceit. 
He came to Georgia directly from North Carolina, but his family first 
settled in Virginia, where several of its members have achieved high dis- 
tinction in public life. When Clara Daniel was only two years old her 
parents moved to Floyd County, where they settled upon an extensive plan- 
tation on the banks of the Oostanaula River, near Rome. Subsequently they 
located near Sugar Valley, in Gordon County, and still later at Calhoun, 
where thev were living when the war broke out. Six children constituted 
the household at the time of the removal to North Georgia, viz., Wilberforce 
(deceased) ; Regina P. (Mrs. James D. Ligles, deceased) ; Martha (Mrs. M. 
A. Sheppard) ; Jane P. (Mrs. A. F. Fleming) ; John B., and Clara C. (Mrs. C. 
C. Knight). Strict Presbyterian discipline w-as exercised over the house- 
hold, and the children were early taught habits of industry and self-control. 
With the commencement of hostilities between the sections in 1861, the 
household was almost completely broken up; some of the children having 
previously married, and both of the brothers immediately setting out for 
the front upon the call of the Confederate government for volunteers. Trialfi 
and hardships succeeded each other in rapid succession until 1864, when 
General Sherman's advance from Chattanooga to Savannah made it neces- 
sary for the family to seek refuge in South Georgia, where they remained 
until the war was over. Directly after the war the family located in Atlanta. 
Here Clara Daniel met Capt. George Walton Knight, to whom she was 
married in 1866. Two children were thd fruit of this union, viz., Lucian 
Lamar (literary editor of the " Atlanta Constitution "), and Marie Bertha 

116 



(Mrs. T. R. Hardwick, deceased). Captain Knight lived only three years 
after his marriage, never having fully recovered from the effects of wounds 
and exposures incident to his service in the Confederate ranks. Soon after 
the death of her husband, Mrs. Knight became identified with the public 
schools of Atlanta, and such was her success from the start that the Board 
of Education, realizing her splendid executive ability, as well as her thorough 
mental equipment, soon made her principal of one of the new schools, which, 
under her wise and faithful administration, has become one of the best in the 
system. She controls her pupils through love rather than fear, and she 
encounters little difficulty in bringing them up to fixed ideals of decorum, 
as well as to high standards of scholarship. Mrs. Knight is thoroughly 
wide awake in her methods of instruction. She believes in keeping abreast 
with the world's progress; and in her quest of new ideas she spends much 
of her leisure time either in reading books, pamphlets, and magazines, or in 
visiting schools in the North and East. Last year she spent her entire 
summer at the University of Chicago, pursuing special lines of study. 
Though Mrs. Knight was pre\-ented by the war from enjoying the benefit of 
collegiate training in early life, she has since schooled herself thoroughly in 
most of the branches of modern thought and research, and few women in 
the South possess broader general culture. Mrs. Knight is a member of 
the Atlanta chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She is 
also a member of the Central Presbyterian Church. 



The Mothers <?/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



117 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



Rebecca ^VCCinan glUlJCV was the only child of John Freeman 
and 'his wife Catharine. She was born July ii, 1786, in her father's home 
in Wilkes County, Georgia. 

Her father was able to give his daug'hter the best educational advan- 
tages of that early period, within the region in which she lived, and also to in- 
troduce her into the best society of the country. 

She grew up to be an attractive young lady; several suitors sought her 
hand. A young man from Connecticut, Mr. Shaler Hillyer, proved to be the 
accepted suitor, and in the autumn of 1803 they were married at " Poplar 
Grove," which was the family homestead. 

Tradition tells us that the wedding festival was exceptionally brilliant 
for that early day, in the region of middle Georgia. As soon as tlie winter 
passed, the young couple set out upon their excursion to the North. In 
those days such a trip was a serious undertaking compared with what it is 
now. We may well imagine what pleasure the husband anticipated in visiting 
again his boyhood home, and in presenting to its beloved inmates this charm- 
ing wife, and the delight the young wife anticipated in beholding what would 
be to her the novelties of the land and the mysterious wonders of the sea. 

In three years after her marriage, Mrs. Hillyer's father died, and her 
mother was left a widow at " Poplar Grove." This sad event led to a change. 
When Mr. Hillyer married he was doing business in Petersburg, eleven 
miles from " Poplar Grove." He now found it necessary to make their home 
at " Poplar Grove," restoring Mrs. Hillyer to the society of her mother 
and enabling himself to superintend the estate. 

This happy household continued till death dissolved it. Mrs. Hillyer's 
married life was a happy one. Her good sense, her true refinement of 
feeling and of manners, and her faithful love were met by corresponding ele- 
ments in the character and deportment of her husband. 

Six diildren were born to them, but only the three eldest reached ma- 
turity. The first born was Rev. John Freeman Hillyer, LL.D., late of 
Texas. He lived to see his eighty-ninth year. 

The second was the late Hon. Junius Hillyer of Georgia, who lived to 
see his eightieth year. 

The youngest, S. G. Hillyer, still lives, having reached his ninety-first 
year, and is now writing this brief sketch of his sainted mother. 

Her married life continued less than seventeen years. On March 22, 
1820, she stood by the side of her dying husband. 

Other misfortunes soon followed, and Mrs. Hillyer and her children 
were left dependent upon her mother, who. fortunately, had a small property. 

Their first anxiety was to provide for the education of the children. By 
great economy and self-denial this was accomplished, and nine years after 
the death of their father, each of the young men had received a diploma 
from Franklin College, Athens, Georgia, now the State University. Mrs. 
Hillyer's life continued with but few incidents till her death in 1843. 

118 



The brightest jewel that adorned this beautiful character was her de- 
voted piety. While young she consecrated herself to a religious life by 
joining a Baptist churdh. This was to her the beginning of a new life. She 
put away her costly ornaments; she limited her toilets to the modest de- 
mands of a neat propriety, and turned away from all questionable amuse- 
ments of social life. 

Like David she could say, " I am a companion of all them that fear 
God and of them that keep his precepts." She had deep reverence for the 
Word of God. It was the foundation of her hope beyond the grave, and 
the source of all her consolations amidst the trials and sorrows of the 
present life. 

For her children she wrestled with God by prayer, and did all she could 
to train them up in the " nurture and admonition of the Lord." Nor did 
she labor in vain, for her three sons united with the Church in early manhood. 

She delighted in the house of God. She longed to see the gay and 
thoughtless come to its life-giving waters, and they too might freely drink 
and live forever. 

She once said to some friends, " When, in the Sunday-school, I look 
upon the briglit young faces listening to the stories of Jesus, I feel as if 
I could take them in my arms and press them to my heart." 

But her desire for the salvation of others found its most sublime ex- 
pression in her compassion for the benighted heathen. She was in heart 
and soul a missionary. Such a life as hers reflects as from a mirror the 
likeness of Jesus. 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



119 



The Mothers of 

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^^ gUitlbctU %\\K\\ ^VaUXmcU, my father's mother, was born in South 

Carohna, July 6, 1791. Her father, Ebenezer Fain, was of French parent- 
age, was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1762, and was a gallant 
soldier in the Revolutionary War. 

In 1818 my grandmother, with her husband, Jehu Trammell, moved to 
Habersham County, Georgia; they were among the first white settlers of 
the beautiful Nacoochee Valley. 

The country was full of Indians at this early period. I've been told that 
they were soon attracted to this gentle woman, whom they named " Fair- 
hair," and that the squaws would go to her home and beg her to loosen the 
heavy braids of her hair that they might admire its length and beauty. 

Her husband's business took him much away from home, and during the 
winter months the winding Chattahoochee was often impassable for weeks, 
separating her from her valley friends ; she was thus left alone with her small 
children, the Indians their only neighbors, except the mountain wolves, that 
paid their home occasional night visits. Let us hope that she was like most 
pioneers, too busy during the day to miss companionship, and too sleepy at 
night to be long disturbed. 

It has been said of her that she was " grandly heroic." 

An obscure life lived grandly may in the end be productive of the great- 
est good. As the sources of great rivers are hidden away in the mountain 
side, so some of the most lasting influences for good begin and flow outward 
to bless humanity ; from homes hidden away from the world, where mothers 
direct lives aright, having nothing to divert them from daily home duties. 
One of her friends wrote of her : " She made her home a little Eden, in which 
all the domestic virtues and pleasures grew and flourished with unusual 
beauty and fragrance." (So the old-fashioned flowers: petunias, nastur- 
tiums, phlox, poppies, etc., flourished in her pretty garden, as my childhood 
memory will attest.) 

She raised eight children : Rosetta (Mrs. J. H. Starr) : William T. (the 
only surviving member of the family): Mercer; Caswell; Mircilla (Mrs. J. 
R. Parrott) : Jasper; Louvinia (Mrs. Sistrunk), and L. N. Trammell. 

My father's love for his mother was unique ; long separation did not 
affect it : manhood and age did not cure the boy longing to see and be with 
her. I've heard him say: "To me, my mother was absolutely perfect; she 
had not a single fault." 

Among his papers were found, after his death, some " thoughts " written 
on his sixty-fifth birthday, with this tribute to his mother : " My earliest 
recollection is that of my mother — how her beautiful blue eyes, beaming 
with affection, still shine in my heart ! How the gentle, caressing touch of 
her soft hand still rests upon my head ! Her pure Christian life and heroic 
Christian faith have served through a disturbed and tempestuous life, to 
anchor my faith in the Christian religion." 

The following is an extract from a sketch of her life written by Rev. 




ELIZABETH FAIN TRAMMELL 



William M. Crumley soon after her death in Cartersville, May 6, 1870: 
" Her religious character was formed and developed on a broad basis; 
her Christian fortitude and patience were beautifully heroic. In those days 
there were but few or no churches in that country, and the itinerant and 
pioneer ministers had to preach in dwelling-houses or under the forest trees 
as occasion offered. The dwelling-house of Major Trainmell became the 
regular preaching place for that neighborhood, and, like the house of Obed- 
edom, in which the Ark of the Lord rested, it was greatly blessed. Soon a 
gracious revival of religion took place — there the writer, in his ninth year, 
received his first permanent religious impressions. Here the weary minister 
found ' a prophet chamber ' and a welcome home, as well as a church in the 
house of this woman of God. 

" By the example and zealous effort of Mrs. Trammell a church was 
built on her own land and dedicated to the service of God, in which she 
delighted to worship. Here she had the inexpressible delight of seeing her 
husband and all her children, with many of her neighbors, brought into the 
fold of Christ. For many years her effort, her prayers, and means to a 
large degree sustained this church. Her hand and her heart were ever 
opened to the unfortunate and needy — in proof of this, when it was known 
that she was going to leave the neighborhood, those whom she had com- 
forted and aided gathered from many miles around and wept as if their own 
mother was going to a far off land. She was truly the golden candlestick, 
the bright star, the angel of the church of Chattahoochee." 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



^UU '^Uill ^Stlll, mother of John H. Estill, editor and proprietor of 
the Savannah " Morning News " for a third of a century, and diu-ing that 
time prominently identified with the upbuilding and best interests of Savan- 
nah and Georgia, was born in Charleston, South Carolina, January 27, 1809. 
The Westminster Presbyterian Church occupies the site of her birth-place. 
She was the eldest daughter of John Pickering Lloyd and Rebecca Boswell. 
" Annie," as she was called by family, friends, and teachers, began school 
at a very early age, and it is said of her that she could read well enough 
at four years to undertake English history. Her father's library was well 
filled with the works of standard authors, and it was the delight of the little 
girl, and afterward of the young woman, to spend her leisure moments in 
a quiet nook with a book. It was thus that she gratified and cultivated a 
natural taste for reading, and stored her mind with information. 

Throughout her long life her interest in literature — current, historical, 
and classical, was sustained. There was no subject under public discussion 
with respect to which she was not well informed. After her marriage she 
had a sympathetic companion in literary tastes in her husband, who, though 
never a public man, had the political, literary, and sociological history of 
his country at his fingers' ends. And no matter how exacting the cares of 
a large family, the wife and mother so systematized her daily duties as to 
leave some time for the perusal of favorite books, magazines, and news- 
papers. 

At the age of nineteen Miss Lloyd became the wife of \\'illiam Estill, 
who was also a native of Charleston. Eleven children blessed their union; 
and all of them save one reached the age of maturity. Her five sons entered 
the army of the Confederacy and there served their country. 

The youngest, a delicate youth, died in her arms from the effects of 
disease contracted in the service. During the terrible days of the Civil War, 
Mrs. Estill was, like every other true Southern woman, faitliful in act, word, 
and prayer to the cause for which her loved ones had offered their blooil 
and lives, and were ready to sacrifice all save honor. 

There was no moisture to be seen about her eyes as she said " Good- 
bye " to her sons when they left her to go to the front ; but many were the 
tears shed in the sacred privacy of the chamber when she asked God's bless- 
ing and protection for them in camp and in battle. 

She was the kindest and most devoted of mothers. No sacrifice was 
too great for her to make gladly, if it would contribute to the pbysical, 
moral, or intellectual progress, or the spirittial welfare of her children. It 
required no harsh words for her to control them. She governed the house- 
hold with love, tenderness, and gentleness: a look, a word of caution, suf- 
ficed to secure ready obedience. She was direct and practical in her dis- 
cipline, yet that discipline was simplicity itself. If a child erred, the error 
was explained. Dignity and self-respect were persistently inculcated, and 
stress was put upon the desirability of exercising these attributes in the home 



as well as abroad. The cardinal virtues were taught by precept and example 
in a manner to create a life-time impression. Mrs. Estill was a home- 
maker and a home-lover, and she taught her daughters in those gentle arts 
and duties which make the well-ordered home the dearest spot on earth. She 
was one of those women : 

" Nobly planned 
To warn, to comfort, and command." 

She was the idol of her children. They did not fear to tell her of their 
mistakes or troubles, for they knew they would be listened to with sympathy 
and love, and that correction or advice would be given with the kindest heart. 
Disparaging remarks by her children were not permitted ; she often quoted 
the maxims, " B}- others" faults wise men mend their own," and " Judge not, 
that ye be not judged." System and neatness prevailed in her home. If 
unexpectedly called from household duties, she was not taken at a dis- 
advantage, being always ready upon the moment to entertain a caller or 
perform an act of mercy, no matter how busil}- a minute previously she had 
been occupied with the domestic routine. 

From pantry to parlor with her was merely a matter of distance, and 
not of time; still the most critical could never have detected about her the 
slighest trace of the work in which she may have been engaged. Nor did 
an interruption disturb the serenity of her manner; the visitor was always 
met with a smile of true welcome. 

j\Irs. Estill died in 1869 in Savannah, while on a visit to her son. pass- 
ing away as though she had fallen into a peaceful sleep; so gently that those 
about her bedside could not realize that the kind heart had ceased to beat, 
and that the pure soul had winged its way to the bosom of her Jieavenly 
Father, to whom she had looked for guidance and support. 

Her remains rest in the beautiful flower-decked graveyard of the Uni- 
tarian Church in Charleston, not far from the pew in which, with her 
husband and children, she had worshipped for nearly a half century. 

" Her children rise up and call her blessed." 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



"3 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

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Georgians 



I^CtXlValt ^VingtC, mother of Hon. Coleman R. Pringle, was born 
in Halifax County, Virginia, in 1793. She was a daughter of WilHam and 
Phoebe Fanibro, who were married in 1787, and together with their three 
sons, Robertson, Wilham L., and Allen G., and their daughter, moved to 
Clarke County, Georgia, in 1820. In a few years the family all moved to 
jNlonroe County. The three sons were very useful and honorable citizens, 
and occupied places of trust in Monroe and Upson Counties. Hon. Allen G. 
Fambro, having moved to Upson County, represented this county several 
times in the House of Representatives, as well as in the Senate, and was 
frequently mentioned for higher positions. In 1822 the daughter married 
Coleman S. Pringle, of Monroe County, who was also a native of Halifax 
County, Virginia, and, having moved to Pike County in 1844, died there, 
April 16, 1849. 

Mrs. Pringle was the mother of si.x children, Mary Ann, Martha I., 
William Allen, Augustus C, Coleman R., and Angelina Louisa; all were 
born in Monroe County, and all have died except Coleman R., and Mrs. A. 
L. Pringle Campbell, who, with her children, is now living in Sandersville, 
Georgia. 

Mrs. Pringle was one of the most popular and lovely women of her 
day, a consistent member of the Methodist-Episcopal Church, and attended 
faithfully upon the ordinances of the church. She was a woman with un- 
usual sterling worth and pride of character, ever teaching by both precept 
and example those high and noble principles which have been, and ever 
will be, an inspiration to her children and friends to the end of time. 

Mrs. Pringle was a kind and most self-sacrificing wife and mother, and 
as such had few equals. Her hospitality was proverbial, her home ever 
open to friend and stranger, and the needy never left her door unsupplied. 
She never considered any sacrifice too great to make for the comfort and 
good of others. During the Civil War much of her time was devoted to 
planning for the welfare of the boys in gray, and while a regiment of sick 
and wounded soldiers were encamped near her house, her daily ministra- 
tions and cheerful conversation proved a benediction to many a sick and 
sad heart, as she narrated incidents both pathetic and laughable to com- 
fort and cheer them ; in fact, doing and caring for others was a part of her 
nature, and she was never better satisfied than when doing a kindness to 
some one in some way; administering to the sick of her own family as well 
as that of others was one of her chief characteristics. Her children thought 
when they were sick, " there was no one else needed but manmia," and one of 
them can now testify that all through his life, whenever he was sick, if he 
could only be with his mother he wanted no physician, and he continued to 
ask and receive her kindly ministrations as long as she lived. He thought 
she could diagnose his case more quickly, knowing the patient so well, and 
prescribe a course of medicine (intuitively though it may have been in some 
cases) with as much skill, apparently, as the most eminent physician. 

124 



Mrs. Pringle was a most enthusiastic temperance advocate, and her 
son, Coleman R. Pringle, says: " I owe every thing I am, and ever expect 
to be, by the grace of God, to the early as well as the later teaching and 
influence of my mother. She often warned me against the intoxicating cup, 
and she often said I would not take spirituous liquors as a medicine even 
when a child, and I am very fond of the record my mother's influence caused 
me to make — having never taken a drink of intoxicating li([uors in my life of 
over sixty years." Mr. Pringle has held many positions of honor and trust 
during his useful and self-sacrificing life, but, as space forbids, only a few 
will be mentioned here. He was the first mayor of Sandersvillc, about 
twenty-five years ago, and has been identified with the schools there ; first 
he was president of the board of trustees for sixteen years, and is now chair- 
man of the board of education. He was president of the Sandersvillc & 
Tennille Railway for eighteen years, and a director in two other roads for 
several years. He was elected to the General Assembly, and served in 
1882, '83, "84. and '85, and represented the twentieth Senatorial District in 
the Senate in 1886 and 1887, and was vice-president of that body. He was 
elected and served as president of the Southern Forestry Congress in 1885 
and 1886, and was elected president of the American Forestry Congress 
(now the American Forestry Association), in 1887, and presided when the 
Southern Forestry Congress was merged into the American Forestry Con- 
gress, in Atlanta, in 1888. When serving his State in both Houses of the 
General Assembly, he was president of the committee on temperance, and 
led the temperance forces in prohibitory legislation. He was elected presi- 
dent of the Georgia Prohibition Association in 1882, and has been reelected 
every annual convention since. 

No parents ever had a more loving and devoted daughter than the 
subject of this sketch; she was the ideal of her brothers; no husband ever 
had a better wife ; she loved her children devotedly, and they in turn thought 
she was the best mother in the world. 



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Distinguished 

Georgians 



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The Mothers of 

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H-aUClJ i^aUC ColqXVltt. When Walter T. Colquitt returned from 
Princeton College, in the early twenties, to settle down in Walton County 
as a young lawyer, he met Nancy Hart Lane. She was only a girl, fifteen 
years old, but already a belle famed for her beauty. 

Of the courtship there is no record. Those who would be likely to 
remember a romance of that day are dead. In a family Bible, for years hid 
away in an attic, have been found these entries : 

'■ Nancy H. Lane, daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Lane, born Feb- 
ruary 23, 1808." 

" Nancy H. Lane, married to Walter Colquitt, Tuesday, June 24, 1823.'' 

This was the mother of Alfred Holt Colquitt. It is in the influence 
upon her husband, in the impress upon her son, that the personality of this 
woman must be interpreted, for authentic records are rare and memories 
are misty. 

She was directly descended from Sir Ralph Lane, Colonial Governor 
of Virginia, who commanded a fleet of ships sent out to this country by Sir 
Walter Raleigh. Her grandfather, Jesse Lane, rendered distinguished ser- 
vice in the Revolutionary \\'ar. The first Provisional Congress met at the 
home of her great-uncle. Joseph Lane, who founded the city of Raleigh, 
North Carolina. This house is still standing, by the way, and tenanted. 

The links that bind the ancestry of Alfred Colquitt's mother to that 
picturesque spirit of the Revolution, Nancy Hart, are missing; but that she 
was a lineal offspring of that plucky old patriot w'hose cross-eyes, gleaming 
along the business end of a rifle, perplexed the red coats and caused their 
capture, is founded upon more than family tradition. Indeed, that is where 
the name comes from — Nanc}' Hart Lane ! 

Perhaps it was some transmitted trait of the original Nancy that gave 
her a fondness for hunting. The most notable recreation of her girlhood 
was to accompany her father on frequent shooting expeditions. Wild tur- 
keys were plentiful : and deer, too, in those days. There were Indians to 
help in tracking down the game. It was rare sport. Nor has the fighting 
spirit of Nancy Hart diminished in succeeding generations. She was illus- 
triously represented in the Mexican W^ar, in all the large battles of the Civil 
War, and more recently in the conflicts in Cuba and the Philippines. 

That her father had confidence in the judgment and the ability of Nancy 
Lane was shown by his decision to leave the plantation bookkeeping to her 
care. This was no insignificant responsibility for a girl of fourteen or fifteen. 
But the appearance of the Princeton graduate put a quick quietus to forest 
excursions and to the less exciting pastime of bookkeeping. It may be she 
had heard of Walter T. Colquitt before his collegiate sojourn in New 
Jersey. He was known as the bully of old man Beenian's school in Han- 
cock County. His fistic prowess as a boy gave early indication of remarkable 
feats that characterized his career at the bar. It was admitted that if Col- 
quitt did not win his case in the courthouse, which was rare, the opposing 

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counsel would have to show what kind of stuff he was made of mig-htv soon 
after court adjourned. 

^^'hether it was atiiletic achievements of Walter T. Colquitt, or whether 
there were other qualities that caught the fancy of the girl of fifteen can onlj' 
be surmised. Her girlhood became womanhood before the years to which 
that period is usually limited, and motherhood with its cares followed. 

There is evidence tliat in the quietude of her home life, Nancy Lane 
developed a pronounced religious sentiment. She was strongly solicitous 
about the spiritual welfare of her children. There were no puritanical re- 
quirements. Her fervent nature and lessons of love for fellowmen — the true 
religion — colored Alfred Colquitt's career, and gave to Peyton Colquitt 
the character which made his piety no less conspicuous than his bravery, 
from the time of his entrance at West Point to the tragic charge at Chicka- 
mauga. Her husband felt, too. the force of her reverence. In a letter dated 
"Washington, D. C, Sunday morning, December 15, 1839." l^c writes, 
" This is a windy, drizzly day, and I have not thought it prudent to leave my 
room, so that I have failed to have the benefit of religious society. Doctor 
Sewall has called to see me and I have promised to pay him a visit after we 
get regulated in the House of Representatives; he is, after all, a rather dull- 
looking man. The Rev. Mr. Sheer and the Rev. Mr. Cookman, two Method- 
ist preachers, called to see me yesterday, and I have promised to visit them. 
I calculate to connect myself with a class which meets at Doctor Sewall's 
house." 

Further extracts from this letter are interesting. It was Walter T. Col- 
quitt's first term in Congress. He was telling about the cordial reception 
given to the Georgia delegation : 

" But the breath of applause is evanescent, and it affords but transi- 
tory pleasure: the laurel leaf worn by the man or the soldier is sullied and 
withers under the rude touches of ambitious partisans, and wriggling dema- 
gogues. And, after all, there remains but one earthly good, rich in the 
sources of enjoyment and pleasure; beyond the reach of changes while it 
endures: and far surpassing in consolation and happiness all that ambition 
offers or honors confer. This good grows and lives only in the bosom of my 
family, in the smiles and embraces of the wife I love, and in the doting fond- 
ness of my children, the ever pleasant pledges of our mutual affection." 

His love for Nancy Lane was thus told : 

" For, after all, it must be acknowledged that a letter, though the best 
means known to commune with each other while we are separated, is a poor, 
frigid channel in conveying the warmth of our feelings and affection. There 
is a stiffness and formality in every sentence, that destroys its tenderness 
and tells me when I have done, that words put on paper are very poor and 
meagre representatives of the feeling. You cannot realize my presence, 
feel mv touch, sit on my lap, rest on my shoulder, tell by my eye the warm 
ardor of my soul, nor by my lips the kisses of enkindling affection. Yet to 

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The Mothers of 

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Georgians 



write often is the only vent to my pent up feeHng; and to read letters from 
you, and to know that your hand and your pen had rested on the sheet, 
and that your eye had been fixed upon each word and line written upon it, 
and that while you wrote, your thoughts were turned on an absent hus- 
hand, is the only remedy left to make our separation tolerable." 

Nancy Lane did not live to see greater honors bestowed upon her hus- 
band. She died a few months after this letter was written, before tlie return 
of Walter T. Colquitt from Washington, leaving four children, Alfred, 
Peyton, Emily, afterward the wife of Col. Samuel Carter, and Lizzie, who 
married Congressman O. B. Ficklin, of Illinois. 

In after years, when the public career of Alfred Holt Colquitt, as Con- 
gressman, Governor, United States Senator, was nearly done, seated one 
sunmier afternoon on the veranda of his home at Edgewood, he told of a 
sweet-faced woman whose love he had always cherished, the memory of his 
boyhood — his mother — Nancy Lane. She was buried near La Grange. 

This meagre memoir chronicles a life brief but potent. 



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The Mothers of 

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Jta Villi ^'ill'ham JllU. There is a tradition that in the early colonial 
days of the country three brothers, Ingraham, in Wales, built themselves a 
boat and crossed the Atlantic to make themselves a home in \'irginia. In 
the course of vears the name became " Parham," and one brother emisrratcd 
to the new colony of Georgia, settling among her red hills, and there, in a 
pioneer farm home, Sarah Parham, the mother of one of Georgia's most 
illustrious sons, was born. 

The annals of that simple farm life, while traditionary, furnish us beauti- 
ful pictures of duty done, of frugal and industrious habits, of innocent 
pleasures, and honor to God. From this (|uiet religious home Sarah Parham 
went out the wife of John Hill; his ancestors were from Ireland, settling in 
North Carolina, and even in colonial times, one Ben Hill awakened the 
enthusiasm and held the hearts of his contemporaries by his magic elo- 
quence. 

John Hill came to Georgia and settled in Jasper County. It was here 
that he met and loved Sarah Parham. He was a man of moderate means 
and limited education, but a man of strong individuality, extensive reading, 
and deep reflection. He believed in religion, education, and temperance, 
and he gathered around his home a church, a school-house, and a temper- 
ance society. In the language of his illustrious son, " he was a deacon in 
the church, trustee of the school, and president of the temperance society ; 
he was the leader of every movement having for its object public progress 
and improvement." These characteristics of the father gave color and sub- 
stance to his entire family. The wife was of earnest gentle nature, man- 
aging his household with love and care — she was deeply religious and 
charitable. 

In this home, where with simplicity of perfect faith God was honored 
and love reigned, Benjamin Harvey Hill was born, the seventh of nine chil- 
dren. " Blessed is she whose quiver is full." When Ben was ten years old 
the family removed to Troup County, and on this new land the labors were 
immense — the boys assisting the slaves in clearing and building. In winter 
the children attended school, and thus, with alternate work and study, the 
life ran smoothly along until Ben was fifteen. He was strong and robust, 
physically and mentally eager and ambitious. He had the privilege of being 
taught by Rev. Mr. Carbin, a graduate of Yale, and at seventeen was ready 
for college. His father had become discouraged at the outlay necessitated 
by the education of the older boys, but the mother came to the rescue. As 
was the custom in many sections, the wives of farmers would have 
" patches " about the house which the superabundance of house servants 
would tend in their leisure time ; generally cotton was planted, a very clean 
and easy crop to cultivate. Mrs. Hill easily made an hundred dollars a 
season from this source, and she insisted upon donating this. Also an 
aunt having a small property came to the rescue — Mr. Hill making up the 
balance. Thus did these noble women open the door of opportunity to 

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genius. Ben promised not to exceed the amount given, also to bring home 
the first honor in his class. 

He entered the university at Alliens, joining the sophomore class. In 
these days the boys drove into the classical city in wagons, containing their 
furniture, wearing the jeans clothing made by the mothers and sisters at 
home. His college career was brilliant and successful — he was redeeming 
his promise to his mother. He carried with him to college the pure lessons 
of his country home, and was ever faithful to the family altar, where the 
father had prayed for him, and the mother had blessed him with her kisses. 

The future life of Ben Hill belongs to State and national history how, 
step by step, he mounted rapidly into fame almost without a peer. We all 
know the grand tragedy of his death — his days of patient, heroic suffering, 
and how he testified to the justice and love of God, and made that memor- 
able answer to the question: " How are the dead raised up, with what body 
do they come ? " " If a grain of corn will die and then raise again in so much 
beauty, why may not I die and raise again in the infinite beauty of life? — 
how is the last a greater mystery than the first? and by so much as I exceed 
the grain of corn in this life, why may I not exceed it in the new life? How 
can we limit the power of Him who made the grain of corn, and then made 
the same grain again in such wonderful newness of life." General Evans 
in his memorable address said : " When the end had almost come he tottered 
to the room where hung his mother's portrait — as a cliild to gaze upon his 
mother's pictured face — a dear, good old face, well traced by marks of in- 
telligence ; the wrinkles are there, the stoop of age and other signs of failing 
life ; long since she went away, but the wasted statesman became a boy again 
in feeling, and gazed with true adoring love upon the portrait, and mur- 
mured, " I will soon see her face," and then, above the faded picture, looked 
with eyes that saw home, heaven, and mother all in one vision of transcend- 
ent glory." 

How blessed the mother able to give such a son to her State and 
country. 



130 




MATILDA SEPTIMA MclNTOSH 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



l^tXutlUIlt J»cptlm<t ^IcfutOSTl was born June 20, 1826, at " Snow 
Hill," Lincoln County, Georgia, within a mile of old " Lincoln Camp 
Ground." She was the seventh daughter — there being nine daughters and 
two sons — of Dr. Thomas Kirby Sandwich and Ruth Blalock. Dr. Sand- 
wich was born in England, being five years old when his parents came to 
this country and settled in Augusta, Georgia. In England they had great 
wealth ; many heirlooms now in possession of their descendants indicate that 
they belonged to the nobility. Ruth Blalock was born in Lincoln County. 
After the death of Dr. Sandwich, a widely known and successful physician, 
the family moved to JefYerson County, Florida ; here the mother and some of 
the daughters died very soon. Two brothers were killed — Henry Sand- 
wich was shot from ambush, at night, on the highway ; John Sandwich, who, 
with a party of friends, was out hunting, while sitting beside a lake, was sur- 
prised by Indians and killed, with one other of the party, and Mr. John 
McMillan wounded. About this time the house and contents of the Sand- 
wich family were burned. 

For some months following these misfortunes, the subject of this 
sketch, with other members of the family, were the welcome and needful 
guests at the hospitable home of Mr. and Mrs. McMillan, of Brooks County, 
Georgia, where they remained until they procured another home, in 
Lowndes County, Georgia. She was married on June 5, 1850, to John A. 
Mcintosh, merchant and planter, of Thomas County, Georgia, who was a 
son of Murdock Mcintosh and Katherine McMillan. She has lived con- 
tinuously in Thomas County, except three years' residence in Monticello, 
Florida. Her husband died on May 9, 1879, in Thomas County, Georgia. 
Four children were born to them — Amelia Jane, who died a young lady, 
unmarried; Thomas M., a physician; Emma Sandwich, who devotes her 
time to art; and Charles Edwin, who is a travelling man; all these children 
are yet unmarried. 

The childhood of Mrs. Mcintosh was marked by no special events that 
were personally characteristic. She received the education that her sur- 
roundings ofifered ; she has always been a great reader, has a most remark- 
able memory, pronounced in her views, uncompromising in her convictions 
and ideas of right and wrong. She is remarkably vigorous in body and 
mind for one of her years, though not robust in frame, and her dark hair is 
only now being tinged with gray. 

Of her children, Thomas Murdock has been most known to the public. 
The " Atlanta Constitution " of November 29, 1894, has this to say of him: 

" In selecting Dr. Mcintosh as principal physician of the State Peniten- 
tiary, the Governor has chosen a man who stands very high in his profession, 
and one whose ability is recognized throughout Georgia. 

" He was invited by the illustrious Willis F. Westmoreland to remain in 
his office in Atlanta, after graduating with honor. His father's health failed, 
and he returned to his old home in Thomasville, where his success has been 

131 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



phenomenal. He is a hard student, and keeps fully abreast with the times, 
frequently taking post-graduate and hospital courses in New York, and in 
1 89 1 spent the year in the hospitals of Berlin and Vienna. 

" His contributions to medical literature have been chieily upon surgical 
subjects, this being his favorite branch of the science, and his success in these 
lines has established his reputation over the State. He has served as vice- 
president of the Medical Association of Georgia, and in his capacity as 
president of the Board of Health of Thomasville, he devoted considerable 
attention to sanitary matters. 

" During his political life, he and Governor Atkinson became personal 
friends, and he was tendered but declined the place of Chief Surgeon of the 
First Georgia Regiment in the Spanish-American war." 



132 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



gXliSJtbctll (Svlfflug gtUuavdS was born at Gorham, Maine, May 
27, 1822, the youngest daug^hter of Captain Daniel Hunt and Angelina 
Griffing Hunt. At the age of nineteen she was married to her cousin, James 
Carson Edwards, who had removed to Georgia from Philadelphia in 1821. 
Her father was prominent in the merchant marine of Philadelphia, and as 
the owner and commander of the " Louisa," a privateer of sixteen guns, in 
the War of 1812. A fine portrait of him, painted by Peale in 1802, and a 
painting of his ship are in possession of his grandson, Harry Stillwell Ed- 
wards. Mrs. Edwards is a descendant in the sixth generation from Jasper 
Grififing, who came to America in 1664, and whose tomb is still preserved at 
Southold, Long Island; also, a descendant in the sixth generation of Lieut. 
Nicholas Stillwell, Who settled among the Dutch on Manhattan Island in 
1636, and was conspicuous in the Indian wars of that period. 

Mrs. Edwards's education was begun at the Gorham Academy, noted for 
the number of prominent New Englanders who have attended it. Among 
these was S. S. Prentiss, wdiose eldest brother, William, married her sister. 
S. S. Prentiss, as a boy at school, lived in the family of Mrs. Hunt. The edu- 
cation begun at Gorham was finished in Mrs. Okill's Seminary in New York 
City, probably the best educational institution for girls of its day. Her life 
since marriage has been spent chiefly in Macon, where, at the age of seventy- 
eight, she still resides, surrounded by three generations of descendants. Her 
living children are Mrs. C. D. Findlay, James Wilson Edwards, Josep'h 
Alfred Edwards, and Harry Stillwell Edwards. 

In their early Georgia life the family connections of Mr. and Mrs. 
Edwards in the South consisted of one sister of the latter, who married John 
D. Watkins, Esq., a wealthy Georgia planter, and three sisters of the former. 
One of these married Joseph Nisbet, Esq., of Athens, afterward of Milledge- 
ville, in the same State; another, Robert A. Allen, Esq., of Savannah, and 
Augusta, and the third, Rev. James Wilson, afterward a noted missionary 
to India. Mr. Edwards was distinguished as the author of many beautiful 
poems published between 1840 and 1861. These two groups of cousins 
presented a remarkable instance of inherited patriotism and moral and intel- 
lectual strength. They were the lineal descendants of the Griffings, Hunts, 
Stillwells, Edwards, Hands, Landons, and Kirklands, who were prominently 
associated with the military, naval, and commercial history of the coast 
country stretching from Virginia up to Long Island, and who, while active 
in business, chiefly that connected with shipping, found time to distinguish 
themselves in the early struggle of the colonies and States. 

These cousins, transplanted to Georgia, devoted themselves to the wel- 
fare of their new home with all the fervor of their colonial ancestors; and 
every male descendant of theirs in the South, above the age of sixteen, 
fought under the flag of the Confederacy in the Great Civil War. Through 
their children and grandchildren their names have entered into many of the 
prominent families of the South, while through the lateral branches of their 

133 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



ancestry, they are related to a multitude of noted people in the North. The 
Griffing genealogy alone in 1881 carried nearly two thousand names, and the 
Stilhvells quite as many. 

Mrs. Edwards is a woman of strong character and individuality, the 
sole survivor of the two groups described. For nearly half a century she 
has been a consistent member of the Presbyterian church in Alacon. De- 
prived in 1861 of her husband by death, and in 1865 of her eldest son, 
Richard Somers, who lost his life at Petersburg in a deed of valor as des- 
perate as that of his famous kinsman in Tripoli, she faced the hard conditions 
of the war with more than Spartan fortitude, successfully reared and edu- 
cated her children, and in silence has submitted since to the heavy hand of 
fate, as death has relentlessly claimed most of these. In all these years, 
while bending to the rod, she has never despaired nor lost her pride in her 
people. No ancestor, no descendant has ever looked adversity in the face 
with a courage nearer the supreme. Marvellous in her intuition and mem- 
ory, she has instilled into those about her, at all times, the value of character, 
the influence of lofty ideals, and the manliness of a dauntless endeavor. Her 
kinsmen have fallen in almost every land, have sunk in every sea, battling 
with disease, the elements, the savage and the civihzed foe, but none have 
fought a better fight. 

With hat in hand, I salute my leader. 

Harry Stillwell Edwards. 



134 




SALLY BROWN 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



J>uUlJ ^VOIUU, the subject of this sketch, and the mother of Senator 
Joseph Emerson Brown, was born on Duck River, in Middle Tennessee, 
February 12, 1797. She was the daughter of Dangerfieid and Margaret 
Rice. Her mother's maiden name was Margaret Loone}-. 

When quite a smah girl her parents moved to Sinking Creek, Bedford 
County, Tennessee. When she was about six years old her mother died ; 
four years afterward her father married Nancy Brown. On February 22, 
1816, she married Mackey Brown, who was reared on Tugalo River, in 
Habersham County, Georgia. He had gone out to Middle Tennessee 
about the time the troops were starting to the battle of New Orleans, vol- 
unteered, and went with them, and was in the thickest of the fight. He re- 
turned to Tennessee, met Sally Rice, and they were married soon afterward. 

They began life very poor, but soon accumulated enough to purchase 
a good tract of land and a likely negro, when the husband went security 
for a large sum of money, and had it to pay, which necessitated the sale of 
both land and negro, leaving them again without means. The wife's health 
becoming impaired, they found it necessarj- to leave Tennessee, and in the 
winter of 182 1 they moved into Pickens District, South Carolina. 

They had thirteen children born to them ; seven daughters and six sons. 
The two eldest were daughters and died in infancy. Senator Brown was the 
third child, and was born April 15, 1821, and the people of Georgia are 
familiar with his history. 

The next two were daughters, Mary Elizabeth, who married Joseph 
Watkins, and Edna Eliza, who married Beriman H. Turner. 

The sixth child was James R. Brown. He is a lawyer ; has served two 
terms in the State Senate, was a member of the State Constitutional Con- 
vention of 1877, ^''^s served two terms as Judge of the Blue Ridge Circuit, 
and is the only surviving son. 

The next child was William Carroll. He served two terms in the South 
Carolina Legislature and was a prominent physician in that State, and ac- 
cumulated a large estate. 

The next child was Nancy H. She married Freeman Lay. The next 
was Jemima Ann, Vvho died in her young ladyhood. The next child was 
Sally M. She married John H. Boston. 

The next child was John M. He was a student at law when the war 
began. His teacher said of him that, in an experience of thirty years, he 
was the brightest scholar he ever taught. He entered the service in one of 
the regiments of State troops and was promoted to a lieutenant-colonelcy. 
He was killed while gallantly leading his regiment in a charge upon the 
Federal lines in the battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864. 

The youngest child was George Washington Marion. He was study- 
mg medicine when the war began, volunteered, and went with Hampton's 
Legion : was wounded in the first battle of Manassas ; afterward died in Rich- 
mond, Virginia, while in service. 

13s 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



From the time that Senator Brown was a small boy, he was required to 
take a hand in the field, and when the weather was too wet for him to work 
out of doors, his mother required him to spin on the old-fashioned spinning- 
wheel. He became quite an expert at it, and used to race with young ladies, 
but few of them could beat him. 

Sally Rice joined the Cumberland Presbyterian Church when quite 
young, but soon after her removal to South Carolina she and her husband 
joined the Baptist Church, of which she was a consistent member to the day 
of her death. She was a little under medium height, a brunette, weighed 
from 105 to no pounds, with strong nerves and unusual endurance, and did 
about the work of three women all through life. She was remarkable for 
her sound judgment, and her coolness amid great danger. It was impossible 
to excite her so as to throw her off her balance. 

As an illustration of her coolness, her husband had cleared a large field 
and had deadened the timber, and on a dry. windy day. the sap having 
deca}ed, fire broke out in it, and came roaring down the valley, toward the 
buildings, like thunder. The neighbors hearing it for a mile or two around 
came to their aid. Four or five hundred panels of fence were soon on fire ; 
men had to be kept on the roofs of the buildings to prevent their burning. 
Her husband became excited, and undertook to run across the creek on a 
small log. She remarked. " I wish he would fall in. and maybe it would cool 
him off"; and, sure enough, into the creek he went. She laughed heartily, 
and went to giving directions as coolly as though nothing unusual had 
occurred. 

She was unusually popular among the neighbors. She died on May 1 1, 
1874. The last words she uttered were, " How bright, how bright! Oh. 
how bright ! " and soon her immortal spirit winged its way up to glory and to 
God. 



136 



The Mothers <?/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



gUxalJCtTl llVOXUn. in speaking of his wife, Joseph E. Brown, war 
Governor, Chief Justice, and United States Senator from Georgia, said, "She 
has always been more than three-fourths of my success." 

After studying the hfe of this truly remarkable woman it will be easily 
understood why her husband, who was both a good and great man, should 
have spoken of her with such appreciation. 

Elizabeth Grisham was born in 1826, in Pendleton, South Carolina. 
Her father, Joseph Grisham, was a Baptist minister of fine, honorable 
ancestry and of high standing both in his church and his community. Iler 
mother, who was Mary Love Steele before her marriage, was descended 
from the Loves of Virginia and the Alexanders of Mechlenburg, North 
Carolina. 

She was married to Joseph Emerson Brown, on her twenty-first birth- 
day, and they moved to Canton, Georgia, where he was then practising law. 
The description of her wedding, written by herself, shows the abundant 
Southern hospitality of the home in which she was brought up, the influence 
of which remained with her through life. 

Canton was her home until ten years later, when her husband was 
elected governor. Their home was then moved to Milledgeville, at that 
time the capital of the State. 

During the four terms that her husband filled the chief executive office 
of the State, her grand character was first shown to the public. These eight 
years covered the period of discontent preceding the secession, the outbreak, 
and all the trying times of the war. Her great heart went out to the soldiers 
on the field, and to those left in sorrow or destitution at home. She was 
the embodiment of all the qualities which constitute the highest and truest 
womanhood — in wifehood, motherhood, and loyalty to friends and convic- 
tions. Her energy was untiring in the performance of duty, in carrj'ing 
on her many charities to those less fortunate than herself, and in giving 
tliat large-hearted human sympathy which makes the whole world kin. 

From the time when her husband was first elected governor in 1857, 
until his duties as Chief Justice were at an end in 1870, she acted as his 
private secretary; copying every message and every State paper of any 
importance, every opinion delivered from the Supreme bench, and innumer- 
able letters. Notwithstanding all this, her duties in presiding with grace 
and graciousness over the affairs of the mansion were never neglected. 

She was a devout Christian, a devoted mother, and a kind and indulgent 
mistress to the slaves, who were part of the Southern household of that day. 

The homestead in Canton having been burned by Sherman, in 1865 the 
family moved to Atlanta, to the Washington Street residence, where most of 
the remainder of her life was spent. 

In 1880 she accompanied her husband to Washington, where his duties 
as United States Senator kept him for eleven years. At the end of this time 
his illness made it necessary that he retire from public life, and through the 

137 



TAe Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 

five years of his invahdism she was the joy, the comfort, and the solace of his 
last days. Six months after his death, in June, 1895, she left home with her 
daughter, Miss Sally Brown, and her granddaughter. Miss Mary Connally, 
for an extended trip abroad, covering the usual European tour, as well as 
Norway, Sweden, Russia, Greece, Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, ideally spend- 
ing Christmas Eve in Bethlehem of Judjea — a wonderful trip for a woman 
of seventy. Two months after her return to Atlanta, after a week's illness, 
she died, just at the Christmas time of the year 1896. 

She had eight children, six of whom survived her: Julius L., Joseph M. 
Brown, Mrs. E. L. Connally, Elyah A., Sally Eugenia, and George M. 
Brown. 

Her children have risen up to call her blessed, and can say truly that 
she was 

" A perfect woman, nobly planned, 
To warn, to comfort, and command." 



138 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



J»US;innaTt ^omtiuSOU ^OVt, mother of Dr. Tomlinson Fort, lived 
before the days when women's doings were chronicled in the societ)' columns 
of the daily papers. 

Family tradition tells of her usefulness and of her singular power of 
making people love her. She was a Quaker maiden and true to our ideals 
of such maidens, was soft of voice, gentle in ways, and had tender brown 
eyes. 

Her first husband, Mr. Whitehead, died, leaving her a young widow with 
one son. She afterward married Arthur Fort, a Georgia gentleman of Eng- 
lish descent, and when the Revolution broke out they were living in Burke 
County, Georgia. 

She shared in the life of a strong, energetic man, one of those who helped 
carry and steady our State through the Revolutionary War. It sounds 
ratlier humdrum to say that she lived on a Middle Georgia plantation, and 
saw to the crops and the chickens and the butter, while practising the large 
hospitality of a prosperous Southern planter's wife. Well, scarcely " hum- 
drum " to the wife whose husband was out fighting the Indians. She knew 
of his wild ride almost naked on a fleet horse, how he dashed from the 
starving fort to get relief, while the crouching Indians shouted and sent 
shots after him. Such thoughts do not breed ennui, and she jumped at 
every sound as she rocked the cradle. 

She expected surprises too, for now and then her soldier would pay 
a short and stolen visit to his little Quakeress. It was death to be caught ! 
Tories were all about them, and a neig'hbor who hated him watched and 
waited. At last! " Yes, Fort was at home again! " Quickly the spy got 
a band of Tories together, and fhey silently entered the house. In a moment 
one of them started to shoot, when the wife threw herself in front of Arthur 
Fort, just like a heroine in fiction, or better, a genuine Daughter of the Rev- 
olution. ■' Get up, little woman," said the Tory, " I'll spare him for your 
sake." Then they vented their wrath on those symbols of lu.xury, the feather 
beds, ripping them and filling the air with down, and alas, they cut out the 
precious cloth from the loom, and she shed bitter tears, and forgot she was a 
heroine. 

Arthur Fort vowed to kill his treadherous neighbor on sight, but when 
the opportunity came and the wretch on his knees begged for mercy, he did 
better, he kicked him witli all the strength of a strong man, and said he 
" could not kill such a dog." 

Susannah Fort is but dimly seen across the successes of her husband, 
who became one of the Council of Safety who ruled Georgia until State 
government could be established. He was afterw-ard for many years a 
member of the Methodist Church, and lived to be eighty-five, interested in 
politics to his last moment: asking, "Who is elected?" just as he passed 
away, and bowing satisfaction that it was his candidate. 

He was a tall man, Susannah a very small woman, and all of their chil- 

139 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



dren were tall. Five sons six feet tall was not bad for the tiny Quakeress, 
who showed her soul was strong when trying to protect her husband's life 
at the risk of her own. 

She died December 30, 1820. Her children : Sarah, who married Apple- 
ton Rossitur; Moses, who married Eudocia Walton; Arthur, who married 
Miss Newsome; Tomlinson, who married Martha Lowe Fannin; Elizabet'h, 
who married Mr. Smith; Susannah, who married Mr. Robert Jamison; he 
died, and she married Samuel Hunter; Zachariah Cox, who married Amanda 
Beckham; Owen Charlton, died at thirty, unmarried. 

Her fourth child, Dr. Tomlinson Fort, was a model of physical man- 
hood, six feet two inches tall, and of_splendid constitution. It is not too 
much to say that his mind and temper were in harmony with it. A student, 
a statesman, the tried physician, the father, the most intimate friend of his 
children. His daughter might naturally be partial; she appeals to any one 
who ever knew him or knew of him. 

His book called " Fort's Medical Practice " in its day was the comfort 
and stay on many lonely Southern plantations, and is not dry reading now, 
being singularly clear and attractive in style, while some of the scientific 
speculations in certain lines are strangely up to date, as original minds 
always are. 

He had inherited his mother's talent for attracting love, and during 
his term in Congress was intimate with the finest men in public life, Calhoun, 
Clay, and Webster. 



140 



The Mothers of 

Some 
Distinguished 

Georgians 



^Xavtlm ^IXUUltt '^OVt. in 1652 an Irishman, James Fanning, 
settled on Long Island. His father, Dominicus, who was mayor of an Irish 
city, had been beheaded by Cromwell's order. James brought liis wife, 
who was a daughter of the Earl of Connaught„ over to the wilds of America. 
A hundred years later his son James was living in Pamlico County, North 
Carolina. With the Revolution came a family split — one of the Fannings 
went into the English army, became a general, and then Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor of Nova Scotia. The family were furious; several duels were fought 
about the taint of " Tory blood." The Southern branch dropped the final 
" g " in their name on this ground, and when after the war James moved 
to Georgia he was " James Fannin." They had for neighbors a family of 
Lowes, English by descent. Daniel, who was a captain under Washington 
at Valley Forge, had also come from Rockingham County, Virginia, like a 
patriarch of old, with his flocks and his slaves. He had an only daughter, 
Betsey, who danced, and spoke French, and ended by marrying her neigh- 
bor Joseph Fannin, the handsomest man in the county. He was stunning 
in his wedding finery — white cassimere pants, buckles of brilliants at the knee, 
white silk stockings, and hair plaited, tied with a white ribbon, and held with 
a long comb. Like many a swell he had little money ; if his aggravated father- 
in-law would give him nothing, all right. He bestirred himself and had the 
first plank house in his section, every plank sawed by hand. His children 
were Martha, who married Tomlinson Fort ; Ann, who married John Porter; 
Minervia, who married Seaborn Johnson ; and Joseph Decker, the genial, 
witty old bachelor-in-ordinary to Dr. Fort's children ; Sarah, who married 
Stewart Floyd. 

Martha Fannin grew up in a newly-cleared country, chills and fever a 
natural product. Every morning the negroes came for doses of the nau- 
seous Peruvian bark. She spent from her fourteenth to her seventeenth 
year in a Philadelphia school, becoming a fair French scholar, a beautiful 
performer on the piano, harp, and guitar; a handsome, intelligent girl. To 
get home to Putnam County, Georgia, meant three weeks' travel; she after- 
ward said the sound of the coach horn always came back to her on moonlit 
nights. 

From polished Philadelphia to rough Middle Georgia! Only her 
mother's love and plenty of books made it bearable ; she fairly lived on the 
country roads, driving her gig — a servant in shabby livery on horseback 
behind. She found what her education meant when three years later both 
parents were gone ; she got a teacher for her sister, and laid the foundation 
for that close love and respect that never failed between them during fifty 
years. 

WHien twenty, she married Dr. Tomlinson Fort. In 1826 he was sent 
to Congress. Think of going from Milledgeville to Washington in a carriage, 
wife, baby, and nurse besides — it took weeks. Mrs. Fort enjoyed Washing- 
ton life; she always loved society, and it loved her. Among her intimates 

141 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



were the Everetts, Websters, Clays, and Calhouns. Dr. Fort said she pre- 
ferred Calhoun because he flattered, and always took her in to dinner. Dr. 
Fort's family and large practice made him leave public life, but his home was 
the centre of bright society ; he had a wife who understood public questions. 
Nine of the large family lived to be grown : Julia E., who married Edward 
Huguenin; George \V., who died single; Martha F., who married Robert J. 
Morgan; Susan died unmarried; Kate H. has not married; Tomlinson has 
not married; John P., who married Tallulah Ellis; Sallie F., who married 
Harvey Milton ; and Fannie F., who married Julius L. Brown. Did she 
find time for anything but babies? She it was who read first the new 
books; she went to parties, and gave them; she had fourteen varieties of 
orange trees in her greenhouse, and the whitest brandy peaches in her 
pantry — but Aunt Nancy, faithful colored nurse, made those. 

When the first female college in the world was founded — old Wesleyan 
— she was on its board of women trustees. When Georgia secfeded in 1861, 
she sat in darkness, and would not let her house be illuminated, yet in six 
months with sons in the field, who worked hard for the cause. All those 
four years of war she was president of the Soldiers' Relief Society ; one room 
in the house was piled high with army supplies. When she moved to Macon 
the sickening hospitals knew her, and great bowls of soup and heaps of 
vegetables went to them from her kitchen. Peace ! 

At her door she met the conquering soldiers, weeping and saying, " I 
had rather die than see this day." It was during this season of darkness 
that '■ Ole Miss " became lawyer and doctor for the poor darkies. 

She rode on the first passenger train that ever made a trip in Georgia. 
She saw railroads, telegraphs, and telephones cover the land, and steamers 
cross the sea ; saw slavery abolished, and the country trained to the hand 
of man. 

The work of her old age was charity; its amusement, friends, books, and 
chess; her greatest lovers and admirers, her children. 

In 1881 John P. Fort and his partner, J. Marshall Johnston, of Macon, 
began to bore the first successful artesian well in Georgia on their planta- 
tion, " Hickory Level," near Albany. There had been repeated failures in 
artesian wells since 1840, and expert geologists had announced that no 
artesian water could be reached in this section — a section so unhealthful 
because of its poor water that it was given over almost entirely to large 
plantations of negroes. The efYect of Colonel Fort's persistency has been 
that all South Georgia and Florida are the beneficiaries, and thousands of 
free wells furnish an unlimited supply of pure water for man, beast, and 
farms, and the land is full of healthy, prosperous people, thanks to this 
benefactor, to whom, Henry Grady says, " Georgia owes an obligation as 
great as to any one man." 



142 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



I^XaVlJ gVCUt |loUc J»mltlt was born in Lincohiton, North Carolina, 

June 29, 1834, and hved there until her marriage, May 20, 1853, to Prof. 
H. H. Smith, president of Catawba Cohege, with whom she went to reside, 
at Newton, North Carolina. 

Here the two oldest children, Frances and Hoke were born, and here 
the young mother and home-maker became proficient, by actual experience, 
in all the arts that go to make a success of these two greatest callings. 

Miss Hoke had left a home of elegant and charming surroundings; she 
was the oldest child of Michael Hoke and Frances Burton. Miss Frances 
Burton was eldest daughter of Judge Robert Burton, who, a fine lawyer 
and influential man, was honored by being one of General Lafayette's body- 
guard on his visit to our country in 1824. This Robert Burton was the 
son of Robert Burton, who was a colonel in the Revolutionary War, and a 
member of the first Continental Congress. Miss Frances Burton was only 
seventeen when she married ]\Iike Hoke, a young lawyer of twenty-one, but 
their home was blessed, not only by deepest mutual affection, but by luxury 
as well, their parents on both sides remembering the new household not 
only with advice and kindness, but with substantial gifts of all kinds, among 
them a handsome new house, which still stands on a hill at the edge of 
Lincohiton. 

Mary Brent Hoke was brought up by a wise mother, not only affec- 
tionate but sensible ; a woman of fine mind, determined character, and great 
piety; a woman who thought out the problems of her life and carried out her 
conclusions with rare concentration of purpose ; one of those rare women 
who could say to a son engaged in honest conflict, " With your shield or 
on it." 

Michael Hoke died before his brilliant and successful life had reached 
its prime, suddenly and away from home, leaving his family to regret an 
irreparable loss. The death of her father leaving Mary Brent the oldest of 
a family of little children, developed in the child those womanly traits of 
sympathy, unselfishness, and self-control which she has retained through 
life and used for the good of others. Her children were always taught that 
when anything was dilftcult it called for more exertion, not abandonment. 
She taught them truthfulness, charity, and self-respect. She taught them 
to hate anything dishonest or underhanded : to try to be worthy of the best 
and highest aims and ends in life. 

She is a woman of great executive ability, which she has been contented 
to confine to domestic affairs, not being a new woman in any sense. It is 
only natural that the men of her family, husband and sons, are really men. 

When the oldest son arrived he was a welcome guest, not because there 
was mone\- for him to inherit, but because he was a mind and soul and body 
to be trained for usefulness and happiness by parents who never shirked 
nor dreaded their responsibilities. 

Much of his tact and cheerfulness, and his indomitable conquest over 

H3 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



difficulties the Hon. Hoke Smith inherits from his mother. Though a 
devoted EpiscopaHan, Mrs. Smith attended the German Reformed Church at 
Newton, there being no Episcopal Church there; but on removing to 
Chapel Hill, where Professor Smith became one of the faculty of the State 
University, she had the pleasure of her own chosen church services again. 
Although brought up a Presbyterian, her husband joined her church, and 
has always attended it with her. At Chapel Hill Elizabeth and Burton, her 
other children, were added to- the family circle. 

Mrs. H. H. Smith is an elegant lady, whose appearance and manners 
would grace an earthly palace ; whose heart and soul will entitle her to a 
heavenly mansion ; whose dignity secures the respect of all, yet whose un- 
affected kindness has made friends for her among all kinds and conditions of 
people. 

She was gently born and bred, indulged and petted in her youth, saw the 
hardships of the Civil War, sees prosperity slowly returning to the South, 
and has lived long enough to know that fortune is fickle indeed, but that 
those pleasures which we may enjoy with a clear conscience were intended 
for our comfort. We may believe that the success and high position of a 
dear son have been highly appreciated by this mother of one of our dis- 
tinguished men, whose other children, though not famous, unite with him in 
saying, " Blessed art thou among women." 



144 



















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)ki%li^£ 






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r «ii i 








K . ^K JH 








MARY ANNE McDONALD ATKINSON 





i^ltVtJ ^miC ^tcgoimld J^thlnSOU, oldest daug-hter of Governor 
Charles James McDonald, wife of Col. Alexander S. Atkinson, and mother 
of Judge Spencer Roane Atkinson, was born at Fort Hawkins, Georgia. 
August 14, 1823. Her mother was Anne Franklin, married at Clinton, 
Jones County, Georgia, in 1819, to Charles James McDonald. She was a 
direct descendant of Col. Benjamin Cleveland, the hero of King's Mountain, 
and also of the parents of Governor Jesse Franklin, of North Carolina; her 
mother, Mary Cleveland, having married her cousin, Bedney Franklin. In 
her day and generation Mrs. Franklin was a noted woman. Left a widow at 
the age of thirty-five, with a moderate competency, she removed with 
her large family of five sons and one daughter from her home in Madison, 
Georgia, to Athens, that she might educate them. That being accomplished, 
at the age of sixty-two she with her son Bedney settled the plantation ad- 
joining, and developed the now famous Franklin gold mines of Cherokee 
County, Georgia, where she died after a most useful life, in 1858, truly a 
woman of history. On her father's side, Mary Anne McDonald Atkinson was 
descended from Charles McDonald, a Scotch gentleman, who came to 
Charleston, South Carolina, in 1760; fought through the Revolutionary 
War; removed to Georgia in 1793, where he died at his home, "The Vin- 
tage," in Hancock County, in 1820, leaving many descendants, of wliom 
some have been distinguished in the pulpit, in letters, in war. and politics. 
On both sides Mrs. Atkinson's family have always been distinguished 
for their unity of purpose and great devotion to each other. The family of 
Charles James McDonald left Fort Hawkins in 1825, to live at " The Lodge," 
their home near Macon, Georgia, and finally moved to Macon, where Anne 
McDonald, always a delicate woman,lost her health entirely:in 1835 she died, 
and was buried at her mother's home in Athens, leaving three little daugh- 
ters and two sons. It has been said that she was beautiful and accomplished ; 
nearly always an invalid, she was shielded from every care by her devoted 
husband and loving mother. After the death of Mrs. McDonald, her mother, 
Mrs. Franklin, faithfully cared for the three young si.sters until their father 
sent them in his carriage to be educated at the famous Moravian school in 
Salem, North Carolina. The journey was long, and not without its perils, 
over the mountainous roads of North Carolina. On the route they encoun- 
tered the hardships of the " cold Friday and Saturday " famous in history. 
They were driven by faithful " Daddy W^illiam," who was the trusted body 
servant of Governor McDonald, and who stood mourning for and waiting 
on liim when death claimed the master, and age had made the man gray and 
infirm. His daughters remained at Salem until 1839, when Governor 
McDonald, recently elected, having married an accomplished lady of \'ir- 
ginia, Mrs. Eliza Roane Ruf^n, broug'ht his children to live in Millcdgcville. 
There Mary Anne McDonald met and was married to Col. Alexander S. 
Atkinson, a rising young lawyer of St. Mary's. Georgia, just appointed aid 
on the Governor's staff. The marriage occurred at the old executive man- 
10 MS 



The Mothers (?/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



T/ie Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



sion, on May 5, 1843, this being the only wedding ever solemnized in that 
historical house. A mere girl, she went — the journey being made in a stage 
coach from Milledgeville to St. Mary's — with her husband to make new 
friends and found a home on the sea-coast of Georgia. After some pleasant 
years the planting interests of Colonel Atkinson necessitated his presence 
at Incachee, the family residence, now owned by their son, Dr. Burwell 
Atkinson, in Camden County, where were born most of their nine children, 
of whom Charles James, a child of four, died in 1850, and John Atkinson, 
lieutenant in the Confederate army, died of typhoid fever in 1863. In 1861 a 
pressure of business obliged the family to remove to Marietta, where Gover- 
nor McDonald had died in i860. Colonel Atkinson and his eldest son went 
into the army at once, and then was developed the strength of character and 
beautiful womanly traits that ever distinguished the personality of Mrs. 
Atkinson. Day and night, in the hospital, in the kitchen, in her sewing- 
room, she worked heroically for the great Cause we all still love. After all 
was over, no repining marred the comfort of her home. Up to every emer- 
gency she was equal. A large young family needed her care. Always lov- 
ing, never weak, she felt her full responsibility and acted accordingly. When 
Judge Spencer R. Atkinson, lately of the Supreme Court, and her fourth 
son, needed a thrashing, he got it; and once, when more heroic treatment 
became necessary, she caught him gently but firmly by his jacket collar, 
and, holding him over the back piazza, poured cold water on his naughty 
little head until a cessation of his warlike yells announced to the neighbors 
his complete submission, if not repentance. Her watchful care was, however, 
rewarded by his tender devotion and unbounded reverence long before 
she was called to a better world. She died suddenly at her residence near 
Marietta, Georgia, on the 12th of July, leaving four sons — Dr. Burwell 
Atkinson, of Camden County; Judge S. R. Atkinson, Dr. Dunwody Atkin- 
son, and Judge Samuel Carter Atkinson, of Brunswick, Georgia; also three 
daughters — Mrs. Lawrence and Mrs. Irwin, of Marietta, and Mrs. Blanton, 
of Brunswick. Colonel Atkinson died ten years later in Camden County, 
aged seventy-nine years. 



146 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



^hodll ^■'lllslcy ("SauUICU was the great-granddaughter of Colonel 
Stafford, of Blackswamp, South Carolina, who perished in the Revolutionary- 
War. Her grandmother, Mrs. May, daughter of Colonel Stafford, lived to 
the great age of 106 years, and deserves special mention, for, from her four 
daughters are descended many well known Georgia families. The eldest, 
Asenath, married William Maner, of Savannah. The second, Mary, married 
Samuel Maner, and thus became the ancestress of the Robert family of 
Savannah; also of the Ervvins, of which Mr. Robert G. Erwin, president of 
the Plant System, is a member; and also Mrs. Eran P. Harrell, of Atlanta, 
and the Peyton Wades. From another daughter of this old Mrs. May, 
who married Henry Gindsat, are descended the Osaban Island Morels; and 
the late Judge Richard Clark, of Atlanta, was also connected with this 
branch of the May family. The remaining daughter, and the mother of 
Rhoda, the subject of this sketch, married John Clarence Paisley, of Savan- 
nah. Their five daughters, Mrs. Rhoda Gaulden, Mrs. Sarah Ann Hollis, 
Mrs. Jerusha Pierce (Reeves), Mrs. Elijah Robert, and Mrs. Mary Caroline 
Brasch, were noted for their culture and strong intellectualit\\ 

Rhoda, the eldest, born in 1788, was a woman of brilliant conversational 
powers, and remarkably well read. She married Jonathan Gaulden, of 
Liberty County, a planter and Baptist minister. Her strong character and 
high culture are shown in her children ; for, moving to Brooks County, 
Georgia, at a time when there were almost no advantages for education, she 
still managed to bring up and educate her children, so that all six of her sons 
became lawyers, and her descendants bear the stamp of her intellectual 
vigor to this day. 

She was the mother of ten children, two dying in childhood, and one 
daughter very young ; another daughter, Caroline, became the wife of Col. 
W. S. Dilworth, lawyer, late of Monticello, Florida. AMiile of her six sons, 
John P., of Bainbridge, Georgia, who died unmarried, was a well known 
lawyer, as was also W'illiam B., late of Liberty County, Georgia, colonel in 
the Confederate Army, and Albert, captain in the Mexican W'ar, where he 
was killed. Two sons, Edward and Brantley, both lawyers, died young. 
Brantley was said to have been the most brilliant of the family, but perhaps 
the most distinguished was the late Rev. Charles Scriven Gaulden, lawyer 
and Baptist divine, well known throughout Georgia. His family are Charlie, 
widow of the late John Tillman, of Quitman, Georgia ; Judge D. L. Gaulden, 
of Florida ; William T. Gaulden and Dr. Samuel S. Gaulden, both of Quit- 
man. It was through the influence of the Rev. C. S. Gaulden that the 
Supreme Court of ( jeorgia was established, he having caused a bill to be in- 
troduced into the Legislature establishing it, and the early reports of this 
Court bear witness to the striking ability and large practices of these three 
brilliant sons of a remarkable mother, John P., William B., and Charles S. 
Gaulden, all men of marked individuality, sterling worth, and brilliant intel- 
lectual and oratorical powers, and all acknowledging that whatever worth 

147 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



there was in them was largely due to their mother, who, though their 
father's plantation was large and rich, and they had many slaves, early im- 
pressed upon them the necessity of not depending upon the number of their 
negroes, but that it was their own worth that told, and that she expected each 
to make a place for himself in the world. And while she was completely 
wrapped up in her children, it was with no weak sentimentality, for she 
fostered the individuality of each one, making each feel that he must carve 
out his fortune for himself, and that there was no road to real fame but hard 
mental work and strict adherance to honor and duty. And never was there 
a family reared who could surpass in devotion to truth, or in bravery, 
chivalry, and gentleness these six sons of a noble mother. 

Rhoda Paisley Gaulden died May 19, 1853, and is buried in the family 
bur3'ing-ground on the Gaulden plantation at Okapilco. Brooks County, 
Georq-ia. Her tombstone bears witness to her life-long devotion to her 
children. 



148 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



%X\\t glcanov 3>\llVtiu (^llun) V^QSXtX was born in Augusta, 
Georgia, March 24, 1814, and received her education in the schools of this 
city. Her father, Henry Zinn, was of Dutch descent ; his ancestry having 
settled in Beech Island, South Carolina, after reaching America. He was 
a man of wealth and a soldier of the Revolutionary War, and at his death was 
buried with military honors. Her mother was Jane Dourbon Brown, of 
Newberry, South Carolina. The incidents of her childhood and girlhood 
may be passed with mention of the fact that she was raised in a home of 
dignity, refinement, and piety, and thus early impressed with the character- 
istics of her father and mother, they abided with her throughout life. At 
eighteen years of age she was married to John Foster, a highly respected 
citizen of Augusta, who for twenty-five years was an alderman, and subse- 
quently mayor of the city. Her married Hfe was full of happiness. She 
loved, highly respected, and ever looked to her husband as her guide and 
counsellor. She was the mother of fifteen children, and literally spent her 
life in ministering to the comfort and welfare of her family. While by no 
means wanting in appreciation of the social amenities of life, she seemed ever 
impressed with the fact that her fireside was the one place above all on earth 
for her. She was deeply impressed with the conviction that "the bearing and 
the raising of a child is woman's wisdom." She was ever mindful of the 
necessity for educating her children mentally, but appreciated the fact 
that mere intellectual development of the school-room is but a fraction of 
education; that the higher, better part of education of children is imparted to 
them in the home life; that home training includes not only mental develop- 
ment but the formation of character. Therefore, she presided over her home 
in such manner that the spirit of love and duty pervaded the household, 
in governing her children her demeanor toward them and before them was 
circumspect, sensible, kind, affectionate, yet firm. She knew the immense 
power of example of the mother in the eyes of children; that they followed 
her example, not her precepts; that in the home school children daily learn 
lessons of patience, self-control, cheerfulness, helpfulness, and duty through 
fhe mother's example. 

Through her long life she daily evidenced the fact that in her estima- 
tion life was but a cheap toy unless consecrated by duty. With her duty 
was not a mere sentiment, but the all-pervading principle of life, and she 
illustrated it in her daily conduct. She impressed the fact upon her children 
that life is centered in the discharge of common, every-day duties. She 
found her greatest happiness in fulfilling her every-day duties, guided and 
inspired by the conviction that the life on earth is but that of a training 
school, intended to fit and qualify us for the higher life to come. She was a 
pious woman, and ever remembered the Sabbath day to keep it holy, and 
taught her children to do likewise. Every Sabbath she personally took them 
to Sabbath-school. She loved her church, and at each service was in her pew 
unless detained by sickness. She was one of the most energetic of women, 

149 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



mind and hands ever occupied. Her life was characterized by sustained 
work. No hour passed but found her doing something. " She organized the 
hours and gave them a soul. Her days, months, and years were as the stops 
and punctual marks in the record of duty performed." No one of her chil- 
dren can recall one day spent by her in idleness. She was a patriotic woman. 
In the Civil War she sent four sons to do battle for the South. While her 
sons were in camps and on the battle-fields, her mother-heart busied itself 
in nursing and feeding sick and wounded Confederate soldiers in the way- 
side homes in Augusta. Soon after the war closed her husband became an 
invalid. During the three years of his painful illness she was his devoted, 
self-sacrificing companion and nurse, never having suffered anyone to take 
her place in the sick-room for one hour. She lived twenty-one years after 
the death of her husband, and though her health was shattered by her heroic 
services to him and her spirit crushed by his death, yet with patience and un- 
faltering perseverance she filled out the measure of her days in self-sacrificing 
services to her children. Old age sat upon her like a crown of glory, and her 
last days were characterized by that contentment and peacefulness which 
attends upon a life of righteousness. 

Like all true mothers she was proud of her sons, inspired them with 
lofty purposes in life, and encouraged them to the performance of duty, and 
rejoiced in their successes. She was the mother of five distinguished men. 
The oldest son, John P. Foster, devoted his life to commercial and agri- 
cultural pursuits, and although he died at the age of years, he 
was one of the most successful business men in Augusta. He was one of 
the tenderest-hearted and most benevolent of men. Her second son, W. H. 
Foster, is one of the most learned physicians in the State, and a man of 
rare literary attainments. The third son, H. Clay Foster, died at forty-six 
years of age, but for many years prior to his death he was regarded as 
one of the foremost lawyers in Georgia. At the request of the bar, his 
portrait hangs upon the walls of the court-room of his native county, Rich- 
mond, as an exemplar of the great lawyer, the upright citizen, the Chris- 
tian gentleman; the fourth son, Marcellus P. Foster, who died at 
years of age, was also a distinguished lawyer, and a man noted in his com- 
munity for his benevolence and inflexible adherence to duty; the youngest 
son, Eugene Foster, is, and for many years has been, one of the most 
prominent physicians in this State. The positions with which he has been 
honored by the medical profession and citizens of his native State mark him 
as a man of exceptional ability. He is a member and ex-president of the 
Medical Association of Georgia; member of the American Medical Associa- 
tion; American Public Health Association; the New York Medico-Legal 
Society; the American Academy of Political and Social Science; President 
of the Board of Trustees of the Lunatic Asylum of the State of Georgia; 
President of the Board of Health of Augusta; President of the Governing 
Board of the Hospitals of Augusta; Professor of Principles and Practice 

150 



of Medicine and State Medicine ; and Dean of the Faculty of the Medical 
Department of the University of Georgia. By reason of his long experience 
and s])ecial studies, he is one of the highest authorities in the South on sani- 
tation and its collateral branches. He has written much and ably upon the 
leading lines of his profession, and his writings have obtained a llattering 
reception. He is the writer of several of the leading chapters of " Buck's 
Reference Hand-Book of Medical Science," and author of the article on 
" Vaccination " in Vol. IX. Transactions of the American Public Health 
Association. He was one of three physicians in America selected to read 
papers before the American Medical Association at the Centennial Celebra- 
tion of Vaccination. He is, also the writer of a medical history of Georgia. 
He writes after most careful preparation, and his wide, general reading 
adds life and clearness to what would otherwise neccssraily be very technical 
and abstract discussion. He is a great student, and possesses a private library 
which is one of the finest in the South. He is a prominent Mason, and occu- 
pies a prominent position in the council of his cliurch. All of the five broth- 
ers were and are noted for diligence in business affairs, devotion to duty, 
inllexible integrity, and benevolence. Thus the mother lives again in her 
sons. 



The Mothers 5/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



iSi 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



^'tXXlX |lltttC JflvblJ l^ttcCClcndOtt was the mother of Mrs. Loulie M. 
Gordon, and the daughter of Judge Kirby, who moved to Georgia when she 
was a young child. His ancestors, the Kirbys, Molders, Tahiaferros, and 
Smiths were of gentle birth, and came to America before the Revolution. 
They lived in Virginia and South Carolina. For many years Judge Kirby 
was a leading member of the Legislature in Georgia; he was a man of influ- 
ence and wealth, and the subject of this sketch was his only daughter, a 
belle and beauty, and presided with her mother as a charming young hostess 
in the old colonial home, surrounded by a magnificent estate and many 
slaves. Here magnates of Church and State were royally entertained by a 
hospitable father and mother, herself and two brothers, and it was here that 
she married before she was sixteen years of age ; and, in this old manor 
house, with its fluted columns and long verandas, her children were born. 
Her mother was Miss Theresa Elizabeth Wilkins, whose father was an in- 
fluential man, and married Miss Sara Lipscomb, the first cousin of Chancellor 
Andrew Lipscomb. She was of the Pickens family of South Carolina. Her 
grandfather, William Wilkins, moved from Culpeper County, Virginia, to 
North Carolina, where he was a member of the House of Commons. He 
married Miss Elizabeth Terrell, of Virginia. 

Sara Jane Kirby married Jonathan Jackson McClendon, of Scotch an- 
cestry, who was a planter in Coweta County, Georgia. He refused a for- 
tune offered him by an uncle if he would change his politics. He was, as his 
war comrade. Governor Candler, of Georgia, says, one of the bravest sol- 
diers he ever knew. He served in the Confederate army the entire time of 
the war as adjutant of the Thirty-fourth Georgia Regiment, and, later, as 
Major of the Consolidated Forty-second Georgia Regiment. He served 
several terms in the Legislature, and was one of the most beloved men in 
Coweta County. After the war, when his fortune was broken, he moved 
from his plantation to Newnam, Georgia, to educate his children, and from 
there he moved to Atlanta, where he and his wife, with beautiful Christian 
spirits, were leading lights in their church, and made many friends in their 
consecrated lives of usefulness and unselfishness to church and society. 

The father of Jonathan Jackson McClendon was Joseph McClendon. 
who was a soldier with General Jackson in the last British war, and who was 
such a just man that matters of justice were frequently left to his decision by 
his neighbors, both sides believing so in his justice and judgment as to be 
perfectly satisfied with his decision, instead of taking their affairs of dis- 
agreement to law. Joseph McClendon's father was Thomas McClendon, of 
Georgia, who was severely wounded as a soldier in the Revolutionary War, 
and his mother was Miss Sara Cooper. Joseph McClendon's wife was Miss 
Olive Blake, whose father, \Mlliam Blake (who married Lucy Allen), and 
whose grandfather, Thomas Blake (who came from Wales), were both 
soldiers in the Revolutionary W'ar. 

Sara Jane Kirby McClendon, the beautiful woman who is the subject 

•52 




SARA JANE KIRBY McCLENDON 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



of this sketch, with tlie gentlest of blood as an inheritance, married to the 
man of her choice, with his sturdy Scotch and Welsh characteristics inherited 
from soldier ancestors, was the devoted mother of five children. The j'oung- 
est child died when very young, and her first born, Judge Orlando McClen- 
don, of Newnam, who bore the blended characteristics of both father and 
mother, was honored in his county, and was one of the highest Masons in the 
State, died last year. Her other children are, Mrs. John S. Bigby, of At- 
lanta; Mrs. Loulie M. Gordon, of Atlanta; and Mr. John T. McClendon, of 
Jackson County, Alabama. Her grandchildren are, Mrs. Mae Allen iMarsh 
(who was Miss Louise Bigby), Mr. Hammel Bigby, Miss Mary Katherine 
Bigby, Miss Nellie Randolph Bigby, Miss Mabel Bigby, and Miss Berine 
Bigby, who are the children of Judge and Mrs. John S. Bigby; Mr. John 
Leslie McClendon, Miss Marie McClendon, ALister Terrell McClendon, and 
Master Orlando McClendon, the children of Judge and Mrs. Orlando 
McClendon; Mrs. Walter Smith Thompson (who was Miss Lute Gordon), 
of Bremen, Germany, and Miss Linda Lipscomb Gordon, the children of 
Mrs. Loulie M. Gordon and the beloved and lamented Captain Walter S. 
Gordon, who was the youngest captain in the Confederacy — at fifteen years 
of age. He was the youngest brother of Gen. John B. Gordon. The only 
great-grandchild of the subject of our sketch is little Miss Rebecca Gordon 
Thompson, who was born on Robert E. Lee's birthday, in far away Germany, 
in 1900; she is the granddaughter of Mrs. Loulie M. Gordon. 

From the home of her father Mrs. McClendon went to her own new 
home, "a gift from her father, where she was a devoted wife and mother, a 
gracious hostess, and a conscientious mistress to the slaves she and her 
husband owned. All of the four long years, while her husband defended his 
home and his property, she remained with her small children, and managed 
the plantation under the protection of the slaves. What an eloquent proof 
of her bravery and sense of duty and practical strength of character, and 
what a striking picture of contentment and devotion and loyalty on the part 
of the faithfid slaves that they protected the beautiful mistress and her little 
ones while their master was in the war ! 

Mrs. McClendon was filled with patriotism during the war, and sent 
many boxes of clothing and socks made by her own graceful fingers to the 
soldiers. She was always a friend to girls and young men who were strug- 
gling to secure positions to make their own livelihood; many of these girls 
and young men tell her children how she unostentatiously helped them on 
their way. At her funeral in the Second Baptist Church, in Atlanta, where 
her husband was chairman of deacons, and she a beloved and useful mem- 
ber. Dr. Henry McDonald, who was her pastor, said that " in her charm 
of refined friendliness to friend and stranger, and ever present helpfulness 
and beautiful cordiality, no one could take her place in the church." Her 
husband and children rise up and call her blessed, and they revere with 
sacred tenderness and pride her strong and gentle personality and noble life. 

153 



The Mothers of 

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Distinguished 

Georgians 



gi-aUCrj IlilVViS ^tatOU, wife of John Slaton, of Kentucky, was born 
in Hancock County, Georgia, on November 2, 1807, and died near Pratt- 
ville, Alabama, August 16, 1882. 

Her seventy-five years of Hfe were adorned by no adventurous heroism, 
but were thickly studded with the brighter virtues of feminine endurance, 
uncomplaining self-sacrifice, and calmness under trials, of which civil war 
is so fruitful. Her father, Henry Harris, was the son of Absalom Harris, 
who came down from Greenville, Virginia, and located in Hancock County. 
Her mother, Elizabeth Harris, was a daughter of Samuel Harris, of ]\Iary- 
land, also one of the pioneer settlers. Both the Virginia and Maryland 
Harrises were of Revolutionary blood, and foremost in Church and State at 
a time when on!}- men of high character and worth held these positions. 
Their friends and intimates, with some of wdiom they married, were the 
Crawfords, Terrells, Abercrombies, Stephenses, and many others w'hose 
names have added lustre to Georgia. 

Educated at Mt. Zion, Georgia, under that noted teacher from a family 
of teachers, Nathan S. S. Beman, it is small wonder that she should have 
sent her son, William F. Slaton, at the age of fifteen, to school to his brother, 
Carlyle P. Beman, vA\o has taught so many of Georgia's distinguished sons, 
and from whom Maj. William F. Slaton learned so well the art of discipline. 

Nancy Harris's father moved to jNIeriwether County, and with them 
Mr. and Mrs. Slaton, for she had married at the age of fifteen. In 1835 they 
moved to Alabama, when their son William was only four years old, and 
located in Autauga County, near Prattville. Here John Slaton died, leaving 
considerable property, and a widow in the bloom of youth, with seven chil- 
dren. Nothing daunted, she managed her plantations without an overseer, 
riding over them on horseback, for she was a superb horsewoman. It is said 
of her by one of her sons-in-law, " Although the cares of the plantations were 
hers, she was of such ne\'er-flagging energy that she did not forget to culti- 
vate her more gentle nature. She delighted in the beauties of her vegetable 
garden, flower garden as well, and it was a real joy in springtime to meet 
the odors of her rarest flowers, so artisticallydisplayed, so carefully cultivated. 
By her superior sagacity, energy, and good management she was in a few 
years the owner in ' fee simple ' of more than double her real estate; at the 
same time a liberal giver to children, church, and neighbors." 

In appearance she was quite tall, very erect, even to the day of her 
death, with hair as black as a raven's wing, wavy and beautiful, and a voice 
said to have been remarkable for its sweetness and carrying power. She 
was gentle, but firm, and believed in the old rule of hope of reward and fear 
of punishment. To illustrate : when she sent her son, W. F. Slaton, off by 
the lumbering old coach of those ante-railway days, she said, " My son, 
take first honor, and I'll give you a handsome watch; fail to take it, and I'll 
give you a whipping." And so between these two alternatives he chose the 
watch. And from his mother to-day he inherits the noble qualities and firm 

IS4 



character she has bequeathed him. For many years he has been the able 
superintendent of Atlanta's public schools, having laid the foundations for 
the college at Auburn, Alabama, and prominent in every undertaking per- 
taining to educational work. And for his success he gives due credit to 
his mother's training. George Washington attributed everything to his 
mother, as did Lord Bacon; and who will deny that .\lexander believed he 
owed more to the lofty ambition of Olympia than to the wisdom or cunning 
of Philip? 

What she suffered while this son was in fhe army, wounded, or in 
prison at Johnson's Island was borne with Spartan heroism, for she had in 
her veins the blood of soldiers. She was essentially of the old South, which, 
as Thomas Nelson Page has so beautifully said, '' made women tender and 
brave and true; it made domestic virtues as common as light and air, and 
filled homes with purity and peace. It has passed from the earth, but it 
has left its benignant influences to sweeten and sustain its children." 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



15s 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



^amitna gviCjgS |latl, the mother of Major Wilburn Briggs Hall, 
was born in Fairfield County, South Carolina, December 3, 1819, in the 
" White House,'' a name given the family mansion in those early days be- 
cause of its magnitude and color. Her father. Dr. Thomas Briggs, was one 
of the wealthiest men in the South of his day, owning vast estates and many 
hundred slaves. Her mother was the daughter of Darling Jones, an English 
gentleman of affluence. Her family were staunch Whigs in the Revolution, 
except a granduncle, who was an English peer. Her grandfather. Major 
Briggs, of the Colonial Army, was, with a number of other patriots, captured 
by the British and sentenced to death. His comrades were shot, but at the 
last moment he seized an English of^cer's horse and dashed away, while 
volleys were being poured upon him. His faithful slave Caesar, who was 
held as a cook by the English officers in charge, helped him to make good 
his escape. 

Dr. Briggs sent his daughter to a celebrated school in Columbia, and 
she was one of the most splendidly educated women of her time. Having 
been a great reader from girlhood, her culture was broad and compre- 
hensive, combining erudition with great strength and depth of character ; she 
was a fluent reader of the Latin classics, and deeply read in English literature. 

She was married, December 2, 1837, to James Gregg Hall, a young 
lawyer of fine attainments and family. He was a first honor graduate of 
South Carolina College, a nephew of Gen. Maxey Gregg, who was killed at 
Chancellorsville, and a near relative of the late Bishop Gregg, of Texas. 
The Bishop said Mrs. Hall was the most beautiful and brilliant bride ever 
brought to Columbia. After four years of wedded happiness, her husband 
died, triumphant in the Christian faith. His beautiful young widow with 
her two children returned to her girlhood home. She subsequently married 
Col. J. J. McMullen, of Lancaster County, South Carolina, a distinguished 
lawyer, and author of valuable legal literature. His wife was soon widowed 
again, and from tlien her life was clouded by financial reverses. 

She came to Alacon in 1847 ^""^ established a private school for girls, 
having the patronage of many of the best families in the city. In 1851 she 
became the wife of Dr. J. T. Cox, a successful physician, and professor in 
a medical college then located in Macon. Major Hall says of his mother, 
" Her belief in duty was next to her belief in God. God impressed Himself 
on her great spirit by impressing her life with the stamp of duty." I will 
relate just here an incident showing that duty was her ruling principle. 
Being the youngest and favorite daughter, her father bequeathed her half 
of his large estate, the other half to be shared by her brother and sister. 
She disregarded the will and insisted that the property be equally divided 
among the three heirs. 

With a spirit of wonderful cheerfulness she bore the reverses that came 
to her in the evening of her days. While faithful in all the relations of life, 
it was as a mother that her virtues were most resplendent. Her distin- 

156 



guished son remembers her tenderly as the " best, noblest, gentlest, bravest, 
and most self-sacrificing of mothers." At the tender age of nine years she 
sent him from home to school. She bade him good-by in the early morn- 
ing, and pointing to the morning star, counselling that his purpose be as 
fixed as that Ijeautiful luminary, she said, " My son, remember the prayers 
learned al your mother's knees; borrow no money, contract no debts." 
He gave the promise, and its strict observance was the basis of liis fine moral 
and religious character. 

One of the most beautiful features of her life was her devotion to the 
" Lost Cause." She spent much valuable time visiting and ministering to 
the inmates of the hospitals. Many a dying soldier owes the transmission 
of his last message to her kind heart and willing hand. 

In her later years a sad fate cast her lot among people uncongenial 
with her refined nature. Instead of repining, she began at once to inaug- 
urate plans for the elevation and enlightenment of her neighbors. Her 
mission Sunday-school formed the nucleus of a Presbyterian church, erected 
later. She said she hoped her epitaph would be those memorable words of 
the Saviour, " She hath done what she could." 

Her eventful life, so filled with lights and shadows, closed in Macon, 
January 25, 1886. " If she had been a man," writes her illustrious son, 
" history would have sung with the praises of her heroic soul ; but as she was 
a woman, she ranks now with the angels who stand nearest God's throne." 

The subject of this sketch was the mother of Major Wilburn Gregg 
Hall, a first honor graduate of Annapolis Naval Academy, and an officer in 
the United States Navy. He cast his fortunes with the South in the Civil 
War, and served with bravery and distinction in the Confederate Navy. 
After the war he spent several years in Egypt in the service of the Kedive. 
He was four years Consul at Nice under Cleveland's administration. He is 
now engaged in literary pursuits. Like most of our distinguished men, he 
lays his honors at his mother's feet. 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



'57 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



plavgCVlJ J>paldiU0 ^ailUc JvcU, the mother of Capt. John 
Mcintosh Keh, was born at " Laurel Grove," Mcintosh County, Georgia, 
on July 14, 1794. Her mother, Hester Mcintosh, was the daughter of 
William Mcintosh, who was the eldest son of John Mohr Mcintosh, who 
came over with Oglethorpe, bringing with him a hundred Highlanders of 
his own clan to found a colony in Georgia. Hester Mcintosh married 
Alexander Baillie, and died very soon after the birth of her infant daughter 
Margery. The babe was reared by her aunt, for whom she was named, 
Mrs. Margery Mcintosh Spalding. Her distinguished uncle. Gen. John 
Mcintosh, was the guardian of Jtlargery, and she grew up to woman- 
hood in an atmosphere of love and refinement calculated to bring out 
all the noblest qualities of a truly noble nature, made so by heredity and 
assisted by environment. Margery and Hester Mcintosh were the sisters 
of Generals John and Lachlan, the latter the aid and friend of Washington. 
Margery Baillie was educated at what was then the fashionable school of the 
South, ■' Madame Julie Datte's," a French school at Charleston, South 
Carolina. She painted beautifully, was quite a musician, and a very culti- 
vated woman. In 1816 she was married to John Kell, of Sunbury, Georgia, 
a lawyer of distinction. Six children blessed this happy union. One died 
in infancy ; the rest lived to fill their places in life, worthy representatives of 
their parentage. The father of this family died in the very prime of his 
life, leaving a desolate, broken-hearted widow, and five little children, the 
eldest eleven years old. After the frantic grief of the loss subsided, the 
mother consecrated her life to God and her children, and living for and in 
them only, reared them in His faith and fear ; teaching tliem that duty was 
more holy and more to be desired than happiness. 

Besides the care of her children, the care of her servants was very 
great upon her ; but no mistress was ever more beloved and reverenced, and 
being of very strong will and character, a woman of heroic mould of mind, 
though fragile in body, she held the hearts of all within her grasp, and her 
word was law in her household, where truth and honor reigned supreme, 
where duty was the watchword, and the example of mother and mistress 
was faithfulness and loyalty, unselfishness and devotion to others. The 
Civil War desolated most of the coast, and swept away her property, for 
though many of her old people clung to her, she had no means with which 
to care for them. She came to the up-country home of her son and passed 
the evening of her useful life in Spalding Co., Ga. Feeling that her de- 
parture was at hand, after some weeks of sickness and suffering, she sum- 
moned her children about her, and gave them sweet words of motherlv coun- 
sel, and bade them " never to do anything in life that they could not ask God 
to prosper." She died Oct. 17, 1871, honored and beloved by all who knew 
her, and in her children do not " her own works praise her in the gates "? 

Blessed indeed is the man who has had such a mother, " a woman who 
opened her mouth with wisdom, and her tongue was the law of kindness." 

158 



gUailbctll 3^lc=eantlCV ^Slinehip was bom in Hayneville, Ala- 
bama, March 3, 1838. She is of distinguished ancestry, being the daugliter 
of WiUiam and Mary Blanton Alexander, the former a descendant of Lord 
Sterling, the latter of a noted Southern family. Her parents were in affluent 
circumstances and the future promised fair; but tiie sweet young life, so 
auspiciously begun, was shadowed by orphanage at the tender age of two 
years, when she lost one parent. In four more years her father died, leav- 
ing her, with four other children, to the care of a guardian. She is the only 
survivor of the little group. At the age of twelve years she became an inmate 
of one of the most elegant and hospitable homes in Georgia, Judge John 
Reid's, of Griffin, whose wife was her maternal aunt. Here evervthin<r was 
done to banish from her heart the sad con.sciousness that she was an orphan. 
The thoughtful care and lavish fondness of her aunt made life almost "a 
dream of untroubled sweetness." She had every social and educational ad- 
vantage that position and wealth could secure. She graduated at the Synodi- 
cal College in Griffin, which ranked with the best institutions of learning 
in that day. Meanwhile she developed into an extremely beautiful and at- 
tractive young woman. At the age of nineteen she was married to Mr. 
Emory \\'inship, of Macon, Georgia, a young man of wonderful personal 
attractiveness, prominent family, and many fine attributes of character. Of 
this marriage ten children were born. The storm of war had scarcely burst 
upon our ill-fated Southland when Air. W'inship pledged his life and fortune 
to the defense of the Confederacy. He filled efficiently positions in various 
branches of service. He was present at the shelling of Atlanta, the evacua- 
tion of Savannah, and witnessed with sad heart the entrance of General 
Wilson into his native city of Macon. His mother was Mrs. Isaac Winship, 
who, perhaps, did more for " the boys in gray " than any other woman of 
our State during the war, and for the perpetuation of their memory when 
the conquered banner was " furled forever." 

While her young husband was at the front. Mrs. W'inship, enfeebled by 
continued illness, was alone with only the protection of her faithful slaves. 
About this time her only sister died, leaving three small children. She took 
the little ones into her heart and home, and gave them the same fond care 
so lavishly bestowed upon her own. The early years of her orphanhood 
created in her heart an abiding sympathy for the bereaved. Later, an or- 
phaned cousin, daughter of the aunt whose kindness had made Mrs. Win- 
ship's girlhood so happy, became a member of her household. The tender, 
sympathetic nature of Mrs. \\'inship prompted her to many sweet charities, 
unostentatiously bestowed. It is due largely to her efforts and those of her 
husband that the Alacon Orphans' Home owes its present status and effi- 
ciency. She has worked indefatigably for the success of the institution and 
the happiness of its inmates. 

Mrs. Winship has all the elevation of character, grace, and elegance 
which distinguished Southern womanhood under the ante-bellum regime. 

IS9 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



T/ie Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



Our peculiar civilization and the exigencies of the time produced in the 
Southern woman a unique type of character. Her position was one of auth- 
ority. She had the regal dignity of those who govern, with a gentleness and 
refinement that has become proverbial. When the Civil War came, she met 
the various demands made on her with wonderful heroism, directing the 
cultivation of the farm, looking to the welfare of her slaves, encouraging and 
providing for the material comfort of her brave defenders at the front. 

Mrs. Winship has seen life in many phases. There has been a blending 
of shadow and sunshine all along the way. Though always in afifluence and 
comfort, she has spent much time in the midnight of affliction and grief. 
\Mien far past the meridian of life she lost her husband, who, through 
all the years of their wedded happiness, had been so tender and true. One 
of her greatest sorrows came to her in the evening of her days when death 
claimed her only daughter, a lovely young girl with the promise of a splendid 
womanhood. She came forth from her ordea of suffering staggering from 
the terrible blow, but she took up the burden of life bravely, and we find 
in her at present the same gentle dignity and charming affability of manner 
that has endeared her to her friends and won the admiration of acquaintances. 
The shadows are lengthening about her now; the once lovely brown hair 
adorns with snowy beauty the deeply-written brow, but she retains much of 
the old magnetism. Her many friends love her for her purity and sweetness 
of character, and Macon honors her as the motlier of her distinguished son, 
Lieut. Emory Winship, U. S. Navy^ who is easily the most distinguished 
Georgian of his age now living. He is twenty-six, and is a graduate of the 
Naval Academy. His father was a Confederate ofhcer; his grandfather, Maj. 
Phil Cook, was in the War of 1812, and his great-great-grandfather was a 
gallant Revolutionary soldier. On March 5, at Malabon, Philippines, Lieu- 
tenant Winship was five times wounded, and his courage and gallantry at 
this time vvon him national applause. 



160 



^IX Villi !5VU'.:C ^lUiV was the second daughter of John S. Robertson 
and Martha Brown, his wife, who were born in Bottoway County, Virginia. 
Her paternal grandfather, John Robertson, was a Continental soldier, under 
the cavalry command of Light Horse Harry Lee, and her maternal grand- 
father, Samuel Brown, was also a Virginia soldier of the Revolution, and 
their names are to be found on the Virginia records. Her middle name, 
Trulee, was from her French Huguenot grandfather on her mother's side. 
His name was Henry de Trulee, and he came to America with General La- 
fayette, and took an active part in the Revolutionary War. 

In the early part of the last century, about 1801, her father and mother 
emigrated to Clarke County, Georgia, where the subject of the sketch was 
born, March 19, 1805. 

She was educated at Watkinsville and Athens schools, and among her 
schoolmates were such distinguished Georgians as Mark A. Cooper, William 
L. Mitchell, Charles, William, and Robert Doughtery, Ashbury Hull, and 
others. 

In October, 1827, Sarah Trulee Robertson w'as married to Major John 
Park, and they moved to Gainesville, Hall County, Georgia. Major Park 
was the son of William Park and Margaret Campbell, his wife, who moved 
from near Fair Forest Church, Union County, South Carolina, in 1799. to 
near Sandy Creek Church in Jackson County, on the border of Clarke 
County, Georgia. 

John Park was educated at Franklin College, now the University of 
Georgia, and in his senior year married Miss Mitchell, a sister of Hon. W. 
L. Mitchell, who died, leaving an infant daughter, who is now Mrs. Alsa 
Moore, of Maysville, Georgia. 

The subject of this sketch was his second w'ife, and was the mother of 
Rev. William Park, D.D., formerly president of the Le Vert College, and 
510W editor and proprietor of the " Sandersville Herald and Georgian " ; 
Mrs. Martha C. Huntley, of La Grange, Georgia; Major John W. Park, 
attorney at law, Greenville, Georgia; Hon. James F. Park. Ph.D., LL.D.. 
recently mayor of La Grange, Georgia ; Howard Pope Park, of Mt. Meigs, 
Alabama, who died in 1898; Mrs. Volumnia V. Blalock. of Greenville. 
Georgia; Robert Emory Park, of Macon, Georgia, and Lemuel Madison 
Park, president of Park IMills, Troup Factory. Georgia. 

In September, 1849, after a wedded life of twenty-two years. Mrs. Park 
became a widow with eight children to care for. A tribute to her, written at 
this time, says : 

" Never, perhaps, was a mother more distrustful of her ability for her 
arduous task, yet we doubt if one ever addressed herself to her work with 
a more childlike trust, or stronger faith in Him who declared He would be 
a friend to the widow. 

With an insuperable aversion to mere show and undue prominence, 
she sought to fill her sphere of duty in the humble vale of retirement. 
II 161 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



■>> 



The Mothers o/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



The sphere of her magical influence was the family circle. Here, over 
the hearts and wills of her children, seemingly unconsciously to herself, she 
held undisputed sway. 

Her deep love and veneration for the God of the Bible, her reverence 
for His house, the meek submissiveness with which she bowed to His will, 
and owned Him as her Lord and Master, beamed forth in her countenance, 
spoke in her words, and found expression in all her conduct. In this silent, 
quiet, and imperceptible way were woven the strong meshes of that abiding 
affection by which her children were bound to their mother. They could 
not fail to see that, lying back of that gentleness of spirit, that amiableness 
of temper, that untold wealth of fond maternal affection, there was the 
humble truthfulness and the purity of heart that belong to the child of God. 

For over half a century she was a faithful member of the Methodist 
Church, and when the summons came that morning of October 28, 1882, 
she was ready to enter into that rest that remaineth for the people of God. 

At Greenville, Georgia, on a bright Sabbath afternoon, she was laid to 
rest in the village cemetery beside her husband. Six stalwart sons and two 
sons-in-law acted as pall-bearers. 

Tenderly and reverently the body was lowered by the children, whose 
hearts from earliest childhood to mature manhood, and even part of life's 
meridian, had ever, with filial love and gratitude, honored and respected the 
mother who had discharged her whole duty towards them. 



163 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



Louisa ilopclCt; I^XXCUS i^tOUaU, the mother of Gen. M. A. Sto- 
vall, and the daughter of John and Mary Lucas, was born in Sparta, Georgia, 
December 13. 1800. 

John Lucas was a captain in tlie Revohitionary War, and was present 
at tlie siege of Yorktown, when CornwaUis surrendered to Washington. 
His home was in Surry County, Virginia, and there lived also Mary Ropeler, 
whom he married in 1796, emigrating to Georgia the same year, and settling 
in the then village of Sparta. 

John Lucas and his wife were devoted Methodists, and at their house 
the first Methodist Conference of Georgia was held, and their spacious and 
hospitable home gave entertainment to all the ministers and delegates, and 
their well-stored barns yielded of their plenty to the beasts. He gave of his 
possessions twelve acres of ground for the site of a Methodist church and 
parsonage and burying ground, and it is in this resting place that their 
bodies lie this day, marked by handsome monuments. 

In this God-fearing Methodist home Louisa Lucas first saw the light, 
December 13, 1800, and her youthful days were spent amid its pure in- 
fluences. The social life of this section of Georgia was as cultivated as that of 
the older settlements on the seaboard, and of stronger characteristics. Edu- 
cation was considered of vital importance; most of the planters had ample 
means, and every efifort was made to employ the best teachers, and many 
of the most successful men of Georgia derived their power from that rigid 
training received in her field schools. The Misses Lucas were renowned 
over the State for their wit and brilliancy, and were very popular in society. 
Very. soon Louisa met and loved Pleasant Stovall, of Augusta, Georgia, and 
they were married in Sparta, January 6, 18 18. They made their home in the 
lovely border city of .Augusta, and there were born unto them nine children, 
Marcellus .\. (General Stovall), Thomas P., Elizabeth Dearing. Louisa, Ce- 
cilia Shellman. John Lucas, Boiling .\nthony,and Anna Pleasant, who died in 
infancy. During the brief years of wedded life Mrs. Stovall made a lasting 
impression of Christian gentleness on all who knew her. then she passed into 
the great Choir Invisible, leaving her husband and motherless children. A 
daughter writing of her says, " It was our father's greatest pleasure to talk 
to us of her gentleness, her goodness, and the love she elicited from every 
one." She died August 23, 1827. and was laid in the family burying ground 
at Sparta besides her parents. 



'63 



T"/^^ Mothers o/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



I^XattiC "SStHsOU ^tOWaH, the mother of Pleasant Alexander Stovall, 
was the only child of Rev. Alexander Erwin Wilson, M.D., of Catarrus 
County, North Carolina, and Mary Jane Smithey, of Richmond, Virginia. 

Her father was the son of Rev. Dr. John Makennie Wilson, one of the 
pioneers of North Carolina, and of Presbyterianism in that State. Her 
mother was descended from the Virginia Cloptons and an old English family 
from Staffordshire, England. 

Early in their lives these two consecrated young people met, plighted 
their troth, and went as the first missionaries to Africa, sent by the " Ameri- 
can Board Commissioners for Foreign Missions." Their destination 
was Mosika, in Matabeleland, South Africa, a few miles west of Pre- 
toria of modern fame. It was at Kuruman that Mattie Smithey Wilson 
was born. The first white baby that had ever been seen in that dark part 
of the land, she was regarded as a great curiosity by the natives, and was 
the daily pet of one of the warrior chiefs. Before reaching their destina- 
tion, the journey of these missionaries for three hundred miles lay through 
desert and sand. They travelled in covered wagons drawn by teams of 
eighteen to twenty oxen; the heat of the burning sand at times was so 
great that the very dogs howled with pain. Often when camped out 
at night, after the long day's travel, their lullaby was the roar of the lions 
in the neighboring " bush." Such privation and exposure was too great for 
the delicately reared young mother, and a few months later she died of 
African fever, leaving her little babe only eight months old. 

To avoid the horrors of the war breaking out at this time between the 
natives and the Boers, Dr. Wilson thought it best to send his little daughter 
to America to her relatives. A returning missionary took charge of her, 
and with her Hottentot nurse and his own motherless girl they started for 
the homeland. After sailing from port, a terrible storm wrecked their 
vessel, and they had to put back for repairs. Again sailing, they touched 
at St. Helena and Liverpool, and after four months' voyage reached New 
York, and from there by packet to Richmond, Virginia. There loving 
hearts and open arms of grandmother and aunt received the little missionary 
child. 

The continued war soon broke up the station at Mosika, Southeast 
Africa, and Dr. Wilson was sent to Western Africa, where he died near Cape 
Palnias, when his little daughter was five years old. 

Both of Mrs. Stovall's parents lie buried beneath " Afric's sun," but 
a thousand miles apart. 

In Richmond, Virginia, she was reared and educated at Dr. Moses D. 
Hoges' Presbyterian school for young ladies. She is devotedly attached to 
the Presbyterian Church and very proud of her Presbyterian ancestry. 

Miss Wilson married Mr. Boiling Anthony Stovall, of Augusta, 
Georgia, in 1856, having met him tlie year previous, while there visiting 
relatives. Pleasant A. Stovall, her eldest child, was born in this place, and 

164 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 

fitted for college. Then the family moved to Athens, Georgia, for educational 
advantages. Mrs. Stovall still resides in Athens, a viridow, surrounded by all 
her children, except one. Her life has been an eventful one ; checkered 
scenes of sunshine and shadow ha\'e followed her, but a strong faith in the 
" God of her fathers " brings the promise that " at the eventide it shall be 
light." 



i6S 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



JmgitSta C5COV0C ^mm |ClvllllXnrt %\\\t.% born February 12, 
1812, in Barnwell District, South Carolina, was only child of William Kirk- 
land and Elizabeth Robison. 

Richard Kirkland, her father's father, received land from the crown ; in 
the Revolution was an American ofificer. 

George Stewart Robison, maternal grandfather, was of Virginia parent- 
age; was an early settler in Barnwell; owned large interests in cattle and 
land ; operated a noted line of " pole-boats " on the Savannah. 

Soon orphaned, George-Anna came under the indulgent care of her 
grandfather Robison. A piano given her was the first in all that country, 
attracting many curious visitors. 

Miss Kirkland grew to be a large, handsome woman, brunette in type, 
open of countenance, features regular. 

March 20, 1832, she married Edward J. Black, of Georgia, planter, 
lawyer, statesman. Mr. Black was a versatile, sociable Southern gentle- 
man of fine presence. He was in Congress six years. Miller's " Bench and 
Bar of Georgia " contains an appreciative memoir of him. Mrs. Black 
shared in her husband's popularity. A clipping from a Washington paper 
speaks pleasantly of her charm of person and manner. 

Mr. Black died 1849, aged forty-three. 

His widow returned to her Carolinian home. Possessing strong com- 
mon-sense and self-reliance, she successfully managed the affairs of a large 
plantation. From the broad piazza of her home, embosomed in cotton 
fields, she would herself watch and direct the dusky laborers. 

Business, however, did not preclude social pleasures. Neighborhood 
dinner parties — all-day affairs they usually w^ere — have always met with favor 
in the South. In penurious " Reconstruction " days they scarcely abated. 
Mrs. Black contributed abundantly to this interchange of hospitality. In- 
deed, she peculiarly excelled as housekeeper and hostess. W'hether to the 
guest of a day or a month she fulfilled the Apostolic maxim, as one " given to 
hospitality." 

Her conversation was sprightly, humorous, original. " She was like 
no other woman I ever knew," says a correspondent. Her sayings 
were often quoted ; her ways thought unusual. Though vivacious, none 
accused her of unkindly speech. Beneficent and benevolent, she held 
the affection of black and white. In the Civil War, from pure patriotism, 
she exchanged a fine carriage horse for a distressed trooper's broken-down 
jade. 

She was totally undemonstrative ; objected to being kissed, yet chil- 
dren and grandchildren were confident of her love. Candor, outspoken 
speech, hatred of deceit and hypocrisy, were points in her composition. Her 
simplicity was democratic. She threw to the winds many figments of con- 
ventionality. Perhaps this boldness — this democracy — was her most strik- 
ing trait. But in all she was the sane and respected woman. Possessed of 

166 



an even, sunny disposition, she had, writes one, " a certain quaint philos- 
ophy which tided her over many of the ills of life." 

Whatever her faults — and who has them not ? — they were counter- 
balanced by qualities which won her many warm friends. 

It is difficult to draw a flesh-and-blood picture of the dead ; but that 
Mrs. Black had an individuality vigorous and genial there are living wit- 
nesses to certify. She died June 26, 1880. 

Only one of Mrs. Black's seven children, George Robison, spent his 
career in Georgia. He was born, 1835, in Screven County. Some of his 
mother's qualities lived again in him, and he had his father's aptitude for 
public life. Like both parents, he loved the soil. For years he was a vice- 
president in the Georgia Agricultural Society. He was educated at two 
State universities. Beginning lieutenant, he wore at twenty-seven the Con- 
federacy's stars of lieutenant-colonel. As a lawyer, he attained an exten- 
sive practice. In politics, by integrity and ability he advanced to the 
National Congress. Towards the close of his first term paralysis laid its 
heavy hand upon him, and in 1886, after a patient illness, he passed to the 
fuller life. 

.\ modest slab in a country graveyard near IMillettville, South Carolina, 
and an upright granite in the little cemetery of Sylvania, Georgia, mark the 
dust of a mother and son who lived somewhat in the public eye. That pub- 
lic is no worse for their examples, and it may be that it has been enriched by 
two influences which were altogether on the side of goodness, integrity, 
generosity. 

" Kind hearts are more than coronets, 
And simple faith than Norman blood." 

R. M. W. B. 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



167 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



J^daUuC glUabetlt S^ViQht, the subject of this sketch, is the wife 
of Hon. Augustus R. Wright, deceased, and is the mother of Hon. Seaborn 
Wright, two of Georgia's most distinguished men. 

Shewasborn near Asheville, North CaroHna,in 1828, the home of her par- 
ents, Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Allenian. Her father was a prominent and weahhy 
planter. Early in her youth tlie parents of Miss Alleman moved to the 
mountain regions of North Georgia, and in the Empire State of the South 
the daughter was reared and received her education. From the days of her 
college life Miss Alleman was famed for her beauty and manifold attractions. 
Among her many admirers was the Hon. Augustus R. Wright, whom she 
married in 1846, and who later achieved a national reputation as statesman 
and orator in the iialis of both Federal and Confederate Congress. Soon 
after marriage her husband was elected Judge of the Cherokee Circuit, then 
extending over a large part of North Georgia. He was often away from 
home, " riding the circuit " of this frontier judicial circuit, for many weeks. 
During his long absences the management of the large estates were left in 
the hands of the young wife, whose skill and discretion rose to the emer- 
eencv. 

In 1858, when her brilliant son, Hon. Seaborn Wright, was an infant, 
her husband was elected to the Federal Congress. The young wife and 
mother was thus transferred from the almost frontier farm life, with its 
simple duties, to the brilliant social functions of the national capital. The 
beauty and gentleness of Mrs. Wright early won the friendship of Miss Lane, 
the mistress of the White House during the administration of President 
Buchanan, and fliis friendship of the " first lady of the land " she treasures 
among the happy memories of the past. 

When the war came her husband, though steadfastly opposed to seces- 
sion, cast his lot with the people of his State, and during the years of that 
bloody struggle served his country on the field and in tlie halls of the Con- 
federate Congress. 

Again the responsibilities of home government devolved upon the wife. 
Loved and almost worshipped by her slaves, she rested safe with her chil- 
dren in their unfaltering devotion. No war-wrecked stranger was ever 
turned empty handed from her door, but her gentle and full benevolence 
fell like a benediction upon her unhappy countrymen. 

Since then her life has been but the life of ten thousand Southern 
women, given unreservedlv to her husband, lier children, and her friends. 

She is the mother of ten children. Her sons, Seaborn and Moses, have 
risen to more than State prominence. Her youngest child, Adaline Wright, 
has inherited the wonderful beauty of her mother and is universally loved. 

At the writing of this sketdh Mrs. Wright is seventy-two years old, 
but her loved ones think the white, hair as beautiful as the raven tresses of 
yore, the light of her gentle face sweet as in the sunny days of youth, and 
the tender grace of her dear form untouched by time. 

168 




ADALINE ELIZABETH WRIGHT 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



^OUU ^HfoVtl BtcFatUtcn ("SastOtt -was born October 15, 1805. in 
Chester District, South Carolina. Her parents were James Evving McFad- 
clen and Susanna Buford, who were married Dec. 27, i<So4, exactly twentv 
years before the birth of Dr. J. McFadden Gaston, their first grandson. 

The subject of this sketch was brought up in the country and went to 
the best schools, and, among others, to one taught by Mr. John Brown 
Gaston, who studied medicine, and later married his former pupil, March 4, 
1824. 

Her early married hfe was spent in the birthplace of Dr. J. McFadden 
Gaston, on Fishing Creek, in Chester District, South Carolina. We can 
not do better than ([uote from an article of the late Rev. J. H. Saye, of 
Chester, South Carolina, published in the " Chester Reporter," August 12, 
1886: " He and his wife believed that good education was about the best 
thing parents could aid their children in procuring. As a result of this con- 
viction, a good school-house arose in the grove where the Cedar Shoal 
Church now stands, and a good classical teacher occupied that house so long 
as Dr. Gaston had children needing the services of such a teacher. In this 
he was heartily aided by some good and intelligent neighbors. As a result 
of his efforts in this line, five of his seven sons took degrees in the South 
Carolina College, and his four daughters were at the proper age sent to the 
best schools to complete their education begun at the ancient school-house 
in the grove." 

Her husband was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church, as was also 
his father, and as was to be one of their sons and a grandson. She was a 
consistent member of the same church. Her care of her children is well- 
illustrated in the high moral and social character of each and all. As Mr. 
Saye remarks in the same article : " Every son that reached maturity could 
have been safely exhibited as a model of true manhood and gentlemanly 
qualities." 

Her son Isaac died of disease in the army in 1861 ; Capt. J. L. Gaston 
and his younger brother, William, were killed near each other in the battle 
of " Seven Pines," in 1862; Hon. T. C. Gaston, of Chester, South Carolina, 
who died August 15, 1885, was solicitor of his Circuit for three successive 
terms, and was a successful lawyer; Dr. J. B. Gaston, of Montgomery, 
Alabama, is another son of Mrs. Gaston, and is at present Probate Judge of 
Montgomery County, having already served as mayor four terms, and made 
a reputation as a physician and surgeon. Dr. J. McFadden Gaston, of 
Atlanta, is the oldest child, and bears his mother's maiden name. His son. 
Dr. J. McFadden Gaston, Jr., gives a brief summary of the characteristics 
of the lady whose name he also bears: '' Small, but wiry and full of energy, 
she impressed me, even when she was seventy-eight years old, as the strong, 
active woman she was in youth ; she would attend to all the various wants 
of the laborers on the place, and personally preside at the dinner table. In 
her latter years she was fortunate in having the assistance of one of her 

169 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



daughters, Miss Mary B. Gaston, now of Chester, South Carohna. Her 
other daughters were married and had great responsibihties of their own; 
but one of them, Mrs. T. C. Howze, hved on an adjoining plantation, and 
was a frequent visitor and help to her mother until tlie death of Mrs. Gaston, 
whom she survived only a short time. Mrs. R. A. Torrance, of Charlotte, 
South Carolina, is another daughter, who exemplifies the good qualities of 
mind, soul, and body transmitted to her by Mrs. Gaston. 

Polly But'ord Gaston died August 7. 1886, age 81. " Her children 
arise up and call her blessed." Proverbs xxxi., 28. " Give her of the fruit of 
her hand ; and let her own works praise her in the gates." Proverbs, 
xxxi., 31. 



170 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



I^OUisa |>X. gloXlQlltOU gtUuuVtls, tlie mother of Mrs. Mary E. 
Bryan, was, before her marriage. Miss Louisa M. Houghton, a beautiful, 
well-born, and accomplished young woman, whose birthplace and home, 
until she married, was Athens, Georgia. Her ancestors came from England, 
and both her grandfathers fought for freedom in the Revolutionary War. 
The Houglitons who came to North Carolina were a branch of a titled Eng- 
lish family of which Lord Richard Houghton, poet and philanthropist, was 
a distinguished member. 

Joshua Houghton, the grandfather of Louisa, came to Green County, 
Georgia, about the last of the eighteenth century, and purchased a large 
tract of land, on which he settled around him his seven sons and two daugh- 
ters. The place was known as Houghtonville. 

Joshua Houghton was noted for his strength and independence of char- 
acter and his devotion to his friends. He had as a neighbor John Crutch- 
field, who had moved to Georgia from Virginia, and was soon well known 
throughout the section in which he settled for his wealth, his hospitality, and 
his sturdy uprightness. He was a noted Methodist, and his home and that of 
Joshua Houghton were the headquarters of the Methodist divines in that 
day, as is noted in Smith's " History of Methodism in Georgia," and " Life of 
Bishop Pierce." His daughter EHzabeCh married William Houghton, the 
son of Joshua. These were the parents of LouLsa Houghton Edwards, the 
mother of Mrs. Mary E. Bryan. 

William Houghton removed to Athens, Georgia, to educate his chil- 
dren, and died there two months before the birth of Louisa, whose mother 
a woman of noble character and sincere piety, reared and educated her five 
children, dying when the youngest was fourteen years old. 

Louisa was left to the guardianship of her uncle by marriage, Daniel 
Grant, who had married her motlier's sister. Lucy Crutchfield. Julia, the 
eldest daughter of William Houg'hton, had married Judge James McBride, 
and moved with her husband to Florida, where she became one of the best 
known and most widely useful women pioneers of that then sparsely settled 
territorv, being as active in its social and religious development as was 
Judge McBride in his political evolution. 

It was \A\\\(t on a visit to this sister that Louisa met Maj. John D. 
Edwards. w*lio had won his military title while a mere youth in the war with 
the Seminoles, and was then a member of the Florida Legislative Assembly. 
They were shortly afterward married in Athens, Georgia, at the home of 
Mr. Daniel Grant. Mrs. Luther Glenn, who as " Milly Cobb " attended the 
large wedding, has said. " Louisa Houghton was the most beautiful bride I 
ever saw." 

Major Edwards took his young wife to his stately plantation home in 
JefTerson County. Florida, known as " The Castle," and in excellent pres- 
ervation until recently, when it was burned. The plantation was large, there 
were few near neighbors, and no good schools. Mrs. Edwards instructed 

171 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



lier three little girls at home, with the aid of a good library, until Mary was 
eleven years old, when Major Edwards removed temporarily to Thomasville, 
Georgia, that he might send his daughters to an academy there. 

The home in the suburbs of Thomasville was known as " Wood- 
lawn," and became noted, as the more imposing one in Florida had been, 
for its beautiful grounds, its vine-covered pavilions, hedges of cape jessamine, 
and variety of flowers, which owed their blossomy abundance and tasteful 
arrangement to Mrs. Edwards' industry and love of flower culture. 

Many visitors enjoyed the beauty of " Woodlawn." Tlie hospitality for 
which her family was noted historically was seen in the warm and graceful 
welcome Mrs. Edwards gave her friends. She was loved for her sincere and 
charitable spirit and her sweetness of temper. 

This latter was her distinguishing trait. " I can truly say," attests her 
daughter, Mrs. Bryan, " that I never saw my mother angry, never heard a 
harsh or an uncharitable word from her lips. She was cheerful and brave- 
hearted, comforting and sustaining my father in the reverses of fortune that 
came to us when I was quite young. She was almost worshipped by her 
slaves, whom she nursed in their sickness and consoled in their troubles. 
She taught her house servants to read, and instructed all the negroes on the 
plantation in religion. Her manner was often praised. It was the expression 
of her inner nature — the flowering of its simplicity, gentleness, dignity, and 
good will to all. I have never known any being so pure in heart, so wholly 
devoid of suspicion or ill thought of others." 

Her old age was beautiful. The wealth that had been hers so abund- 
antly in her early married life had flown ; the husband who had loved her 
devotedly was dead; but her deep trust in God remained to her, and true 
friends came to her in her cottage home, and she welcomed them with her 
old unselfish cheerfulness and sweet dignity. She still gave all she could to 
the poor, and followed the teachings of Christ, in whose footsteps she had 
walked through 'her beautiful, blameless life, which ended peacefully in the 
spring of 1891. Of her it was truly said, " None knew her without being 
better for it; she had not an enemy in the world." 



172 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



J»llVUlV goyCC goopCV 3^lCifllU(Xcr was born June 6, 1836, in 
Pontotoc, Mississippi. She was the daughter of John Wood Hooper and 
his wife, Sarah Joyce Wood, tlirough both of wliom she was descended from 
an ancestry whose patriotism since colonial days had been frequently illus- 
trated in field and forum. Her father was the first judge of the Cherokee 
Circuit, embracing the larger part of Northwest Georgia, and resided in 
Cassville, then the metropolis and intellectual centre of that section. The 
e.\tent of his circuit requiring protracted absences from home, rendered it 
necessary, after the early death of his wife, for Judge Hooper to place liis 
children at school. Little Sarah Joyce was at first entrusted, with her older 
sisters, to the care of that distinguished educator. Rev. Charles Wallace 
Howard. Soon thereafter, however, Mrs. H. V. M. Miller, the niece and 
former ward of Judge Hooper, lost her only child, and she and Dr. Miller 
united in such an earnest plea for the charge of Sarah Joyce that her father 
consented, and so devoted did Dr. and Mrs. Miller become to their little 
charge that, thereafter, she was ever claimed by them as a daughter. Fol- 
lowing the completion of her education, first under the direction of that 
notable instructor, Mrs. J. M. M. Caldw-ell, and later in the Cassville College, 
of which she was the first graduate, she spent most of her time as a young 
lady with Dr. and Mrs. Miller, at Coligni, their beautiful home near Rome. 
In this hospitable home, where the brightest minds were wont to congregate, 
she first met her future husband, Thomas Williamson Alexander, a member 
of the honored Scotch-Irish family of that name in Carolina. Also, at 
Coligni she was married, November 25, 1857. Near by, the young husband 
built a new home, " Casino," where they resided until his election to the 
legislature, in the troubled days just prior to the War, necessitated a short 
residence in Milledgeville, followed by the establishment of a home in Rome, 
where the young wife could be assured of better protection when her hus- 
band entered the army, as he did soon after, at the head of a gallant company, 
organized by his efforts. Mrs. Alexander's history, during the next four 
years was that of many noble women of the South. The responsibilities and 
privations incident to war were borne bravely. Time, substance, and tender 
care were given to the soldiers in camp and hospital. Cheer and comfort to 
the bereaved and necessitous at home. Upon the approach of Sherman's 
army in 1864 her husband, now Colonel Alexander, securing a short fur- 
lough, hurried home and removed his family to a place of safety below 
Atlanta, then returned to his post of duty in the army. After Johnston's 
surrender, in North Carolina, he made his way on foot to the South Georgia 
plantation owned by Judge Hooper, where Mrs. Alexander, with her house- 
hold, had taken refuge. From this retreat the little family returned to the 
devastated home in Rome, there to resume life under new and hard con- 
ditions. Despite these conditions, however, Mrs. Alexander forgot not her 
duty to the heroic dead. Uniting with other noble women of Rome, a 
Ladies' Memorial Association was soon formed, in which she was an active 

173 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



member from organization. Elected president soon after, she served in this 
capacity until her death. Under her administration, and largely by her efforts, 
were erected the Confederate Monument, on Alyrtle Hill Cemetery, and the 
marble headstones which there mark the graves of several hundred Confed- 
erate dead. By executive appointment she served on the Board of Lady 
Visitors to the State Normal and Industrial College from its establishment 
until her death, at which time she was also the president of the Floyd County 
Industrial Aid Association, and vice-regent of Xavier Chapter, D. i\. R. 
Her death occurred December 7, 1895. The universal esteem and regard 
in which she was held was attested b}- the attendance at her funeral of such 
organizations as the Bar Association of Rome, the Confederate Veterans 
Association, the Ladies' Memorial Association, and the Daughters of the 
American Revolution. Besides her husband, she left four children. Hooper 
Alexander, her only son, is a successful attorney in Atlanta, where he is 
honored for his integrity and intellectual attainments. The two older 
daughters, Martha Lamar, wife of Samuel F. Pegues, and Hallie Miller, wife 
of James A. Rounsaville, married representatives of old French Huguenot 
families. The youngest daughter, her mother's namesake, is the wife of 
Chas. Wm. King, of the time-honored Savannah family of that name. 
Through both father and mother they have inherited sterling and admirable 
qualities of mind and heart, but unite in attributing all that is best in their 
lives to their mother's ever faithful efforts, by precept and example, to bring 
these qualities to their highest development. " Verily, her children arise 
up and call her blessed." 



174 




AUGUSTA DOROTHEA WENTZ 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



AUQWStil goVOthCil (DelcuhciUi ^eiCUU, the mother of Madam 
Sophia Sosnowski, was born at Pforzhein, Grand Duchy of Baden. She 
was remarkably beautiful and of lovely characteristics, highly educated and 
cultured. 

Because of 'her many attractions and the high standing of her family, 
she had many suitors for her hand, and while in the first bloom of young 
womanhood she was married to the already very distinguished court phy- 
sician, Christian Frederick Wentz. Their married life was very happy and 
brilliant, the husband's exalted position giving them entree to the highest 
circles, and there is an historical incident handed down to the grandclaugliter, 
that, at a large court ball at Baden, Frau Wentz danced with the Duke d'Eng- 
hein a night or two before his arrest by order of Napoleon. The dress 
worn by Frau Wentz on this occasion was of finest linen lawn, embroidered 
profusely with gold, which has not tarnished in all these years. 

Dr. Wentz survived his wife, and at his funeral, which was set for three 
P.M.; the crowd was so great and so persistent in their effort to see their 
beloved physician, that the last ceremonies did not occur until three o'clock 
in the morning. 

Madam ^^'entz, surrounded by wealth and elegance, still had leisure for 
the training of little Sophia, and embodied in her young mind all those lofty 
attributes which distinguished her through life. 

After the Polish Revolution in 1833, she was married to Joseph Sos- 
nowski, an officer in the Polish army, albeit an exile. Joseph Sosnowski 
was the grandson of that Joseph Sosnowski, Governor of Lithuania, who 
refused, by reason of a difference in rank, to give his daughter, afterward 
Princess Lubomirski, in marriage to Kosciusko, because of which the Polish 
patriot never married. 

Joseph Sosnowski was decorated with the cross of the Polish Legion 
of Honor, was born at Kleszezel, Lithuania ; he was the son of Frangois Sos- 
nowski and of Lady Antonia Borowska. 

Joseph Sosnowski and wife, with ample means, came to the United 
States early in their married life, bringing with them letters of introduction 
from General La Fayette, Fenimore Cooper, Bancroft, and Lilewell, the 
Dictator of Poland. 

Unfortunately Captain Sosnowski's health was impaired from the effect 
of wounds received at ^^■arsaw. and after a few years of suffering he died, 
leaving his wife Sophia with three children. 

Madam Sosnowski from this moment took an energetic interest in the 
support of her children. A beautiful musician and a highly cultured woman, 
her services were eagerly sought by the first institutions of the land. She 
chose a home in Columbia, South Carolina, and opened a school for young 
ladies; with what success, hundreds of cultured women of the South can 
attest. 

During the Confederate struggle, this noble lady took an active part in 

17s 



T/ie Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



relieving the sick and wounded soldiers, and during her summer recess went 
as a voluntary nurse, to give her services to the hospitals of Virginia. 

After the disastrous results of the war, Madam accepted an invitation 
to establish her home in Athens, and there in the home school she and her 
daughter Callie have aided in the development of beautiful characteristics 
in the 3'oung women of the land. 

In the refined and cultured atmosphere of Athens, after the gentle 
days of peace returned, this noble German lady and her family lived, and in 
July, 1899, she passed into her rest, and the words of a distinguished friend 
writing to her daughter Caroline says, " I have just read the announcement 
of the death of your mother. In the great grief which you so naturally feel, it 
must be joy unspeakable to you to recall what her life has meant to so many 
people — an inspiration to so many to love the right, to despise the false and 
hollow. For such a one to have lived a long and active life is an incalculable 
benefit to any country and community under its influence. My sympathy 
for you is almost dwarfed by my admiration of her life work. An ideal old 
age, full of honors, in keen and loving toudh with the world, and yet ready, 
like the ripe corn, for the sickle. A long life well spent, a life work well 
done — finished. We cannot wish her back. There must indeed be joy in 
the presence of the angels of God when such a one enters their glorious 
realm." 



176 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



glUlXbcth (L'llVOUuC ^OUCS-iloUUg was born at Laurens, South 
Carolina, November 28, 1808. 

She was educated in the best schools the country afforded, graduating in 
Dr. Johnson's Seminary at Greenville, South Carolina. 

She was married October 12, 1826, in her eighteenth year, to Dr. 
Robert Maxwell Young, an eminent physician of Spartanburgh, South Caro- 
lina. They resided in Spartanburgh twelve years, when they moved to Cass 
County, now Bartow, and settled on a fine plantation on the Etowah River. 

Mrs. Young was a lady of fine appearance and of marked character- 
istics, cultured and refined. She was always distinguished for her good 
sense, her pride, ambition, and courage, and for her sterling virtues as a 
daughter, sister, wife, and mother. She was a noble type of South Carolina's 
oldest families, and ever inspired those around her with respect and love, 
and with veneration in her old age. Hers was a home of generous hos- 
pitality, after the old times of Southern entertainment, without ostentation, 
yet elegant and refined. Dr. and Mrs. Young reared and educated four chil- 
dren, three sons and a daughter. 

When the war came they gave their sons to the Southland cause. The 
eldest son, Dr. George William Young, surgeon of Fourteenth Regiment, 
Georgia Volunteers, died in service in Virginia, September 20, 1861. 

Col. Robert Butler Young fell at the battle of Franklin, Tennessee, 
while gallantly leading his regiment to the charge. 

Pierce Manning Butler Young was born in Spartanburgh, South Caro- 
lina, November 15, 1836. At an early age he evinced a taste for military 
life, and at the age of fourteen entered the Georgia Military Institute at 
Marietta: at fifteen he was appointed captain. Graduating at seventeen, he 
entered West Point, and remained until the war began, when he entered 
service, and fought to the end. He rose to the rank of major-general. 
After the war he was elected to Congress, and served in the Fortieth, Forty- 
first, Forty-second, and Forty-third Congress. 

In 1878 he was appointed one of the commissioners to the Paris Ex- 
position. In 1885 he was appointed by President Cleveland, United States 
Consul General to St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1893 he was appointed 
Envoy Extraordinary, Minister Plenipotentiary of United States to Guate- 
mala and Honduras, Central America. He died in New York City, July 6, 
1896. 

Dr. Young died at his beautiful home, " Walnut Grove." on the Etowah, 
January 13, 1880, respected, admired, and loved by all who knew him. 

Mrs. Y^oung died at the same place, May 26, 1884. 

Husband and wife lie buried in Oak Hill Cemetery at Cartersville, 
Georgia, The daughter, Louisa Jones Young, survives. In i860 she was 
married to Dr. Thomas F. Jones, a prominent physician of Georgia, and 
she, with her five children, resides at the old homestead. 

.2 177 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



©ItVOlinC Rebecca gaVVlSS, the mother of Sarah Berrien Casey 
Morgan first saw the hght of life on Dec. 30, 1822, in Cohimbia Co., Ga. 

Her father, the Rev. Juriah Harriss, was born in Northumberland 
County, Virginia, and was of Welsh stock. In physique, brain, heart, and 
estate he was a splendid type of the Southern planter of ante-bellum days. 
Her mother, n(c Elizabeth Thorn, through her English parentage, had the 
English talent for moderation, its love for order, its delight in a wise 
reticence — a self-respect — that many called hauteur, but which was only a 
well-proportioned reserve, that melted quite away in the charmed circle of 
her friends. 

Caroline was one of eiglit children, and was the fairest of four daugh- 
ters, all of whom were fair. 

Born and reared in the old ancestral home; shut away from the dusty 
highways of life; knowing little of the struggles perpetually waged there 
for money, place, recognition; nothing of its tragedies, its failures, its 
heartaches; she budded into life and girlhood, and blossomed into maiden- 
hood, wifehood, and motherhood, a sweet, fair embodiment of that grace, 
esprit, purity, and nobility of sentiment and unselfish devotion to duty 
which made the " dainty darlings of the Southland " the acknowledged 
" patterns of excelling nature." 

With none of the swarms of annoyances that now so much afflict the 
home-keeper in the South — and which mean more than a load of sorrow — 
to cloud the sunshine and blue sky of her serene life, her days and nights 
were given to promoting the happiness of home, the interest of husband, 
children, and friends, and the care of her slaves. Far removed from the 
scandals, the social agitations — if it may be so expressed, the ptiblicitics of 
private life — and never even dreaming of the speculations and doubts that 
seem to have crept into the hearts of churchmen and laymen alike, her 
too short life was spent with a song of joy on her lips and the peace of God 
in the depths of her hazel eyes. 

Her small, well-shaped head was covered by clustering curls of a rich 
Titian red, " golden in the sunshine and brown in the shade," and gracefully 
poised on her slender neck; her complexion was very fair, with a color that 
came and went as a reflex to every thought and emotion. 

She married in 1841 Dr. Henry Rosier Casey. Dr. Casey was the 
lineal descendant, on his father's side, of Sir John Edgeworth, of Long- 
worth, Ireland; on his mother's side, of Sir Thomas More. England's Chan- 
cellor; of the Berriens. of Bremen. Finisterre. France; of the Stryckers, of 
Holland, and later of " Nieu Amsterdam"; of Thomas Mayhew, of Mar- 
tha's Vineyard; and of Macduff, Thane of Fife. Dr. Casey was an acknowl- 
edged factor in the social and political life of the State. During the " war 
between the States " he was made Surgeon-General of the State, and when 
the war was over and " a people's hopes lay dead," he used wisely Tiis in- 
fluence to help uplift their down-trodden liberties, and to infuse new life 
where life seemed wrecked beyond resurrection. 

178 



At the home of Dr. and Mrs. Casey, Alexander II. Stephens was ever 
an intimate and welcome friend ; Robert Toombs, Ludovic Stephens, Her- 
schel V. Johnston, Benjamin Hill — those Titans of the '60' s — often gathered 
around the hospitable board of Waverly Hall. 

Mrs. Casey's life was a short one; when she was most needed, when 
the demands upon her love and judgment were most incessant, death came 
and " kissed iier eyelids down." 

So ends the brief sketch of a brief but beautiful life. Shut in by trees 
and flowers, educated in all the customs, traditions, and exclusiveness of 
the old life of the South, enveloped in the tenderest love and protection, 
there is little to record to make brilliant the lines that tell of her; her mem- 
ory were more fittingly left to the " sweet lavender of recollection." 

The nation or individual that has made history must have written 
many a line in blood or tears; the life of this good woman knew little of 
pain or sorrow or heartache. She fell asleep, having met life's gentle ques- 
tions, fulfilled its loving duties, knowing its sweetest happiness. 

Alas ! the days are ever past when the women of the South, like the 
subject of this sketch, lived walled away by love and plenty from contact 
and contest. They must now. in ever-increasing numbers, go forth in the 
broad fields of experiment and win for themselves, and often for others, a 
home and the means to live. 

Then, in the name of humanity and the higher civilization ; in the 
cause of justice and right; for the betterment of the race; for the sake of 
the individual, the home, and the State, Georgia should provide for her 
daughters every educational advantage, that they may meet worthily the 
changed condition and environment, ttiereby bringing greater success and 
happiness to these women in their enlarged sphere of action and usefulness 
in the present, and strengthening the State in the future, by the uplift of 
its citizenship through the wise use of this educational lever that compels 
the onward movement of civilization. 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



179 



The Moth&ts of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



^TtCOtljOVa gflCtptS glthluSCill; the mother of Gov. WilHam Yates 
Atkinson, was born in Eatonton, Putnam County, Georgia, July 22, 1820. 
Her parents were Dr. Iddo ElHs, a man eminent in his profession, and whose 
character exempHfied every manly virtue, and Mrs. Lucy Phelps Ellis, the 
latter the descendant of a long line of ancestors, whose origin is traceable to 
a period far back of the Elizabethan age. This fact, however, although 
interesting in itself, could add nothing to individual merit, excepting through 
the entailment of virtue and refinement. 

In 1849, Miss Ellis, living at the time in Columbus, Georgia, was wooed 
and won by Mr. John Pepper Atkinson, of Brunswick County, Virginia, a 
man whose fine intelligence and sterling moral character rendered him 
worthy of her confidence and affection. 

Through her marriage, there devolved upon Mrs. Atkinson the delicate 
and responsible duties of stepmother to three interesting children, the off- 
spring of her husband's former marriage. To say that her faithfulness and 
tenderness in this relation are attested by the devoted affection of those 
children is but a just testimonial to a character amiable in itself, but relying 
for strength and wisdom upon the great Counselor. 

About six years after their marriage Mr. Atkinson purchased lands in 
Meriwether County, Georgia, to which he removed with his family, and 
where he conducted large farming operations. Here, in their Oakland 
home, was born, November, 1854, their bright, beautiful boy, William Yates, 
their third chlid— a daughter, now Mrs. D. P. Ellis, and son, Theo. E. Atkin- 
son, of Newnan, Georgia, having been given them in their Virginia home. 
Afterwards, two other sons, Thos. A. Atkinson, now of La Grange, Georgia, 
and R. J. Atkinson, now of Greenville, Georgia, were sent as claimants on 
their parents' loving care. 

Living a retired life in the country, Mrs. Atkinson devoted herself to 
the training of her children and to the arduous duties pertaining to the 
manage of a large Southern household before and during the war. 

In the meantime, the vicissitudes to which families are subject had in- 
vaded the home of Mr. and Mrs. Atkinson, each making its demand upon 
the mother's love and sympathy. The older daughters had married happily 
and settled in Virginia homes. The oldest son, John P. Atkinson, Jr., a 
noble youth of twenty years, fell a victim to his ardent patriotism in the first 
battle of Manassas, and was laid by his mother's side in the soil of his native 
State. In this crushing bereavement a second mother's heart in Georgia 
mourned the handsome, loving boy who held a son's place in her warm 
heart. In 1873, Mr. Atkinson, for the benefit of his younger children, moved 
his family to Senoia, a village in an adjoining county affording excellent edu- 
cational facilities. Soon after their removal to that place the hand of death 
deprived the family of the guiding, protecting hand of husband and father — 
a man whose life had been so regulated, as concerns both the present and the 
future, that he was able to say. when the summons for an exchange of worlds 

180 




THEODORA PHELPS ATKINSON 



was imminent : " I am prepared for any emergency." Had he left to his 
family no other legacy, the example of his consistent life and noble char- 
acter had been a rich bequest. 

Thus, to the mother was left the responsibility of the further training 
of the three sons whose characters and consequent destinies were yet to be 
determined. 

As years in their courses sped, the mother's tender solicitude, faith- 
ful counsel, and fervent prayers were rewarded by realizing in their char- 
acters some of the high aspirations of her heart for them, and as each attained 
to manhood, she rejoiced to sec him fill a place of honor and usefulness. 

In witnessing the elevation of her second son to the gubernatorial 
chair of his native State, who can say that her heart did not swell with 
maternal pride? for she felt that the faithful discharge of the duties of his 
position meant service to the commonwealth and the consequent apprecia- 
tion of her citizens. But the cup of her happiness was dashed with bitter 
dregs, for she dreaded lest his physical strength should prove unequal to 
the demands made upon it. And when, soon after the completion of his 
second term, she saw his manly form stricken by a disease that refused to 
yield to medical skill ; when she was called to look her last upon the noble 
face that had ever lighted, for her, with reverent tenderness, only God's 
grace could have bestowed the beautiful resignation that tempered the bitter- 
ness of her grief. 

Mrs. Atkinson is now in her eighty-first year, not robust, but in good 
health, and enjoying the full use of her faculties, mental and physical. Her 
presence is the light of her children's homes, and her companionship a joy 
to all who are privileged to associate with her. May she long be spared to 
those who love her; a gentle, pure exemplar of Christian womanhood, living, 
as she does, for the good and happiness of others ! 



The Mothers &/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



i8i 



"The Mothers of 
Some 

Distinguished 
Georgians 



J>llVa ^tvitUS, the wife of Lazarus Straus, was born in Otterberg, 
Rhenisch Bavaria, on January 14, 1823. She died in the City of New York 
on July 21, 1876. She was the cousin of her husband, and comes from a 
family whose Hneage runs back to the beginning of the middle ages, many 
members of which were distinguished as scholars and in professional walks. 
Her grandfather, Jacob Lazare, was a member of the Sanhedrin, or Con- 
gress of seventy notables among the Jews, tliat was convoked by Napoleon, 
in 1806, at Versailles, when the emporer granted full civil rights to the 
Jews within the then extended limits of the French Empire. Rhenisch 
Bavaria was at that time a department of France, and sent as its delegate to 
this Sanhedrin, or Congress, Jacob Lazare, who took a prominent part in 
this notable gathering, and was a member of the leading committees which 
conferred with the commissioners of the French Empire, and which resulted 
in the full liberation of the Jews. The father of Sara Straus was Solomon 
Straus, of Otterberg, a man of moderate wealth consisting of landed estates. 
He was a farmer and a grain merchant. In 1844, when Sara Straus was 
twenty-one years of age, she married Lazarus Straus, and from this union 
there were five children born, four of whom are still living, namely, Isidor, 
one of the leading merchants of the City of New York, head of the firm of 
L. Straus & Sons and of R. H. Macy & Co., and who during the second 
Cleveland administration was a member of Congress from New York City; 
Hermine, who, in 1864, married Lazarus Kohns; Nathan, who is known 
throughout the country for his philanthropic work in supplying the poor 
with cheap coal, and who for a number of years has maintained sterilized 
milk depots in the City of New York, which have so materially reduced the 
death rate among the poor children in the crowded districts of New York. 
His milk laboratories have been copied in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and in 
several other cities in this country and in Europe. Oscar S.. the youngest 
of the three brothers, is the President of the New York Board of Trade 
and Transportation, and was Minister to Turkey from 1887 to 1889, and 
again from 1897 to December, 1900, having served in that capacity 
under three different administrations. He is also the author of several 
historical works, namely, the " Origin of Republican Form of Government 
in the United States," and " Roger Williams, the Pioneer of Religious 
Liberty." 

In 1849, during the revolutions on the Continent of Europe for liberal 
and parliamentary form of government, Lazarus Straus took an active part, 
and when this movement failed he, together with many others who after- 
wards attained distinction in the country of their adoption, became a political 
refugee, and emigrated to the United States to begin life anew. In 1852 he 
came to Georgia, and in 1854, as soon as he was able to ensure a modest 
support for his family, he sent for his wife and children and established his 
home in Talbotton. As the sons arrived at a school age they were sent 
to school to Collingsworth Institute. The youngest son, Oscar, was sent 

182 



to a primary school kept by Miss Anna Jackson, and afterward to Miss 
Cottingham's school. 

Sara Straus was a refined woman of great natural ability. She devoted 
her time and attention to the bringing up of her children, her recreation 
being her garden. As the daughter of a farmer she had acquired consider- 
able knowledge in the cultivation of vegetables and of fine flowers. She had 
a beautiful, expressive face, with a graceful figure, a little over medium 
height, black hair, and ruddy complexion, and large brown eyes. When 
twenty-six years of age she suffered a paralytic stroke, from which she never 
completely regained the use of her right limb and arm, but being a woman 
of extraordinary energy this did not materially lessen her activities. She 
superintended the cultivation of her garden, and took the greatest pleasure 
in teaching her friends and neighbors in the cultivation of vgetables and 
flowers that had not been grown in that part of the country. She sent to 
Europe for seeds that were not then obtainable in Georgia, and in that way, 
in her limited sphere, encouraged her friends and neighbors to add new 
])lants and flowers to their gardens. Her garden was one of the show places 
in Talbotton, and from it she derived both pleasure and satisfaction. 

The formative period in the lives of her children was passed in Tal- 
botton. In 1862 the family moved to Columbus, where they resided until 
after the civil war, when the Straus family went North and located in New 
York City. While in Talbotton, Sara Straus formed warm attachments 
with many of the ladies of her adopted home, with whom she continued to 
keep up a pleasant relationship after the family had removed to New York 
City and until her death in 1876. She was kind and generous. Her insight 
into character was extraordinary and her sympathies were acute. She was 
always engaged in being helpful to her friends and neighbors, especially in 
sickness or in sorrow. " Love thy neighbor " was a natural impulse of her 
svmpathetic heart, and the cordial friendship she extended to others equally 
attracted to her their love and affection. She had such an attachment for 
Talbotton and for her friends there that it took her many years to feel at 
home after the family removed to New York City. She was a kind and help- 
ful neighbor, a devoted friend, and a self-sacrificing mother and wife. Her 
children were her jewels; she took the greatest pride in their education and 
advancement; she entered into their lives, studying the individuality of each, 
and encouraging them in their several spheres, always holding up the highest 
ideals for their attainment. Such qualities as these, glowing with the charm 
of simplicity and affection, have made their impress upon our generation, 
and garlanded the memories of Georgia mothers of bygone years with 
reverence and devotion. 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



183 



'The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



IfVitUCCB ^atocUa e»avtCVClJ filvqxihavt ClJavravd (born, Sep- 
tember 14, 1818; died, August 13, 1890), spent the early part of her life 
between her father's home in Augusta and his country place on the Savan- 
nah River, called " Hilton," after one of the ancestral homes of the 
Urquharts in Scotland. This life she varied by the usual visits of a South- 
ern " belle " to neighboring States and to the North. 

Her father, David Urquhart, was a Scottish gentleman of intense 
aristocratic prejudices, who led the customary life of a wealthy planter. He 
cared jiothing for the ordinary inhabitants of the State, and when they 
came to his house made them go to the back door. He loved all beautiful 
things. With the Highlander's fondness for music, he was a fine violinist, 
played the flute, and possessed a good voice. From his inherited standard 
of a gentleman he never swerved. 

" Un chevalier, n'en doutez pas, 
Doit ferir haut et parler bas." 

David Urquhart came to Charleston from Cromarty, Scotland, 1796, on 
a visit which changed to permanent residence in this country. Chancing 
to accompany a friend, a young Virginia gentleman, Mr. MacGehee, to his 
father's home, for Sunday, and arriving too late for church, the two voung 
men were ushered by mistake into a room where were gathered a crowd 
of negro children. These children were listening spellbound to " Dr. 
Dodd's Sermon," as recited by a young girl who stood upon a large linen 
chest, and who threw into her peroration a fiery eloquence generally lack- 
ing from the good doctor's words. This girl was Katherine Brooke Gar- 
terey MacGehee, the future Mrs. David Urquhart. She was the repre- 
sentative of Highland clans as old and as distinguished as that of the Ur- 
quharts, the MacGregors, and MacDonalds ; a lineal descendant of King 
Robert H., and a woman noted for her beauty and for her gracious, winning 
manner. 

Reared in this atmosphere, my grandmother, while of lovely character, 
intensely charitable and unselfish, absolutely refused to allow anybody to 
approach her socially, unless she considered them her equals in birth and 
standing. It gave her no pleasure to mingle with people at large. 

On October 11, 1843, she was married to William Waters Garrard, of 
an ancient Huguenot family of England. Their early married life was 
spent in Columbus, Georgia, and Savannah ; Columbus being finally selected 
for their permanent home. In the suburbs they built a palatial mansion, 
the third " Hilton," where my grandfather died in October, 1866. 

This home, its elegance, and its liberal hospitality, became a byword 
in that section of the South. It was the seat of refinement, at which all 
strangers of any consequence visiting Columbus were entertained. During 
the war, commanding officers of that department, with their staffs, and the 



7'-4(f Mothers o/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 

officers generally on duty in and around Columbus, treated it as an " open "^^ 

house." 

After the war, my grandmother could never conform to the new order 
of things. She saw people becoming prominent through the agency of 
money whom in her day she never recognized as her equals. She could 
not keep abreast of the times. Still, her life, beyond her constant amaze- 
ment at the shifting kaleidoscope of society, was a happy one. A woman 
of her high intellectuality could never lack resources. She was an omnivor- 
ous reader, and few books, on any line, escaped her notice. She had the 
cultured taste in literature by which the Urquharts for many centuries — 
since old Sir Thomas Urquhart translated Rabelais — had been noted. 

Up to the last year of her life she was a most imposing old lady. One 
could not say that she had the remains of great beauty, because the beauty 
still existed, in the shape of handsome hazel eyes, a marvellously regular 
profile, a hutnorous mouth, a well-preserved figure, and such a straight 
back that we were sure she must, when young, have spent several hours of 
each morning strapped to a board, like the little girls of Colonial days. 
That she had had some such rigid training we judged from the maxims she 
preached to her grandchildren — maxims original and otherwise, of which 
this one struck most terror to my soul : " If you play too roughly with your 
hands they will become so large and brawny that you cannot wear rings 
and bracelets when you are young ladies." And when her grandchildren 
were unusually noisy she silenced them with this trite bit of Goldsmith: 
" A loud laugh bespeaks the vacant mind." We had a great awe and rever- 
ence of her, and decided that she had never laughed loudly in her life ; in 
which jiremise we were quite correct. 

She had an exquisite taste in dress, which took the form of perfection 
in details and fineness of inaterials rather than iavishness of display; in which 
she more nearly approached the French standard of the Faubourg St. Ger- 
main than is the case with most Americans. Her old-fashioned horror of 
publicity prevented her understanding the new type of woman who allowed 
her picture in the papers, and short paragraphs in her praise in the ten cent 
magazines. She was the ideal Southern gentlewoman, of low voice, and 
perfect modesty. And from her parents she had inherited a stately grace 
and bearing never seen in these latter days. 

Col. William Urquhart Garrard, a prominent lawyer of Savannah ; 
married Mary Robert Lawton of same city; lieutenant-colonel of Second 
Georgia Regiinent in Spanish-American War; colonel of Savannah Vol- 
unteer Guards since 1882, up to their disbanding in 1900. During Civil 
War was promoted for bra\ery at \^icksburg by Gen. Stephen D. Lee : was 
assistant adjutant-general to Brigadier-General Peltus, but never left the 
fighting line until the end of the war. Served with the Thirty-first and 
Thirty-third Alabama Regiments; educated at Tuscaloosa Military Acad- 
emy, and Lexington, Kentucky. 

«8s 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



Eva Garrard, married Humphreys Castleman, of Kentucky. 

Hon. Louis Ford Garrard, lawyer, of Columbus, Georgia. Married 
Anna Foster Leonard ; served through Civil War with Nelson Rangers, and 
was commended for bravery at Franklin, Tennessee, and at Nashville, Ten- 
nessee, by Gen. Stephen D. Lee; educated at Tuscaloosa Military Academy, 
Alabama, and at the University of Kentucky, Lexington ; took the law 
course at Harvard; sent to the Legislature in 1878; speaker of the House, 
1882-1883; delegate to Chicago Democratic Convention, 1892. 

Helen Augusta Garrard married John Thomas Glenn (son of Luther 
Judson Glenn and Mildred Lewis Rootes Cobb, his wife), April 26, 1873. 

Gertrude Kate Garrard married James Walton Harris, of Columbia, 
Mississippi. 

Ada Frances Garrard died in infancy. 



1 86 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



%\X\\\\ JJVcS'ltCrSOU ^CVVlCU ^IhitcUcad was a daughter of 
Maj. Jo'hn Berrien of the Continental army, also a member of the order of the 
Cincinnati, at one time secretary for Georgia, for that society. Major Ber- 
rien was only seventeen years old when appointed brigade-major. 

Her mother was Williamira Sarah Eliza Moore, daughter of Dr. James 
W. Moore of Charleston, South Carolina. Julia M. Berrien was born in 
Savannah, Georgia, but when a small child, her mother having been left 
a widow, moved to Jefferson County, Georgia, and they lived on a planta- 
tion called " Oakland," near Louisville. She was said to be one of the most 
beautiful ladies of Georgia, and of brilliant intellect, she was quick at rep- 
artee, but never did her wit at any time embarrass those who were thrown 
in her society. She was indeed a womanly woman, so gentle, unselfish, and 
thoughtful, not only of her immediate family but of all who came in contact 
with her, she was truly loved by the rich and poor. 

She was descended from an old Huguenot family of Berriens, who 
lived at Berrien, Finisterre, France; her ancestor, Charles Jansen Berrien, 
fled to Holland in 1685, at the revocation of the edict of Nantes, he came to 
Newtown, Long Lsland, in i66g. Where he married Jannettie Stryker, daugh- 
ter of Jan Stryker. The Stryker or Van Stryker family have been noted for 
more than eight hundred years at The Hague. 

On her mother's side, her progenitor was Sir John Moore, of Farley, 
Berk.shire, England, who was knighted by Charles L, on May 21, 1627. he 
lost his life and fortune in the cause of the martyr king. 

When Julia AL Berrien was fifteen years of age she was sought in mar- 
riage by the Hon. John Whitehead, of Burke County, Georgia. Judge White- 
head was an intimate friend of her brother, the Hon. John McPherson Ber- 
rien, and eig*hteen 3'ears older than Julia. She could remember when a tiny 
child he would visit at Oakland, and would make a great pet of her, taking 
her on his knee and calling her his little sweetheart; his love savored too 
much of a fatherly affection and she discarded him. .\t sixteen she was 
married to Dr. Lloyd Belt, a handsome young physician w'ho had come to 
Georgia from Maryland. There were three children from this marriage, a 
daughter, the late Mrs. General Frederick Henningsen; and two sons. Dr. 
Richard Berrien Belt, and Dr. Lloyd Carleton Belt. They were prominent 
physicians. Dr. Carleton Belt lo.st his life in the Confederate \\'ar. When 
Dr. Belt died his widow was about twenty-two years old. Judge WMiitehead 
had also married, and he had lost his wife. These two were again thrown 
together, and the love that had always been brig-ht in his heart was offered 
again to the young widow. He was accepted, and it was his greatest pleasure 
to lavi.sh every lu.xury that could be gotten in this country and England 
upon his beautiful young bride, whom he positively adored. There were 
eight children from this marriage. Two died in infancy. The six who lived 
to be grown were: Maj. John Randolph Whitehead and Maj. Charles 
Lowndes Whitehead. They were both in the war between the States, and 

.87 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



both wounded. The others were: Mrs. J. Gordon Howard, Mrs. Thomas 
W. Neely, Mrs. Charles Colcock Jones, wife of the historian for Georgia, 
and Mrs. Augustus Ramon Salas. Mrs. Salas was the first regent for 
Georgia, for the Daughters of the American Revolution. She was also 
one of three who founded the United States Daughters, 1812; she was regent 
general in charge of organization for the United States Daughters, 1812; 
she worked faithfully and arduously for both societies, and her work speaks 
for itself; Mrs. Salas' health became much impaired, and in 1895 she resigned. 
Mrs. Julia M. Berrien Whitehead, from early womanhood, was a de- 
voted Christian. Her family were Episcopalian, but when she married Judge 
Whitehead she united with the Presbyterian Church. The Whiteheads were 
Scotch Presbyterians, and were the founders of the Presbyterian Church in 
Waynesboro, Burke County, Georgia, and at Bath, Richmond County. 
Georgia. Mrs. Whitehead was the favorite sister of her brother, Hon. Jolui 
McPherson Berrien, and her cousin and adopted brother, the late Governor 
Charles J. Jenkins, was devoted to her. Mrs. Whitehead died very suddenly, 
in the fifty-sixth year of her life, of heart disease; she was beautiful even then, 
her lovely dark-blue eyes had lost none of their lustre, and her complexion 
was still beautiful and scarcely a gray hair to be seen in her soft chestnut- 
brown hair. She was certainly a woman of whom it could be said, " Her 
children arise up and call her blessed." 



188 



The Mothers (?/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



J»USllU ^\\\\ JtolUllvrt J»mltll. She sprung from a long line of dis- 
tinguished ancestors on her father's side as well as that of her mother. 

My mother's maiden name was Susan Ann (Susannah) Howard. Her 
father was John Howard, a Methodist preacher. Mr. Howard belonged to 
that family of Howards whose first American progenitor was John Hey- 
ward, of York River. He came to America as early as 1620, and was a 
member of the House of Burgesses during the time when Cromwell was the 
Protector. I think he was a Puritan, but not a Nonconformist. He died 
in 1661, and left two sons, John and William; from one of these my mother 
descended. Her grandfather was Thomas Howard, who married Mary 
Bayless. He certainly was not a Puritan, but his wife was one of the first 
JMethodists in Virginia. He was a rollicksome blade, and her estate, for she 
was an heiress, except one plantation and forty negroes, went for his debts. 
When my great-grandmother was thrown upon her own resources she bought 
a home in Wilmington, North Carolina, and opened a boarding-house. My 
grandfather was a clerk in his brother's store when he was converted and be- 
came a Methodist. When he was of age he was licensed to exercise in public. 
He was not a preacher, but, as we Methodists call them, an exhorter. He 
married as soon as he was of age, Susannah Paythuss Hall. His wife, too, 
sprang from a family of English gentry, and was connected with the 
Pleasants and Paythuss families, and was named for Susannah Pleasants, a 
Quakeress, who preached. Her mother was Selina I-ackey, who was named 
in honor of Selina, Countess of Huntington, the famous Methodist of the 
eighteenth century. My grandfather was not a preacher till 181 7. He had 
a good house, servants, and a good income when a call came to him to 
enter the travelling connection of the Methodist Church. He yielded to 
the call and went to Georgetown. In my little book, " William Hall and 
His Friends," I have told the story of his first years as a travelling 
preacher. He was very popular and had the best stations, but his salary 
was small and his family growing, and he located and taught school in 
Charleston. A friend, who was a widow, died and left him a handsome be- 
quest, and as he had been trained to trade, he went into business in Charles- 
ton. Here mj^ mother received her first schooling, and in the little girl's 
story, of which I have told, the account of her sad experience is told as she 
told it. Mr. Howard was not at ease as a merchant, so he sold his property 
and moved to Georgia, and buying a town house in Greensboro and a 
plantation, he entered again on his work as a travelling preacher. My 
good mother had now an excellent teacher in Mrs. Scott, and went at twelve 
years of age to the best female academy in the State, the one at Sparta, 
taught by Mrs. Warner. Here she finished her education. The new city of 
Macon was laid out, and Mr. Howard bouglit a house in it. Before this, 
at old Hastings camp ground, my mother was happily converted, and joined 
the Methodist Church; she was then eleven years old. \\'hen the family 
moved to Macon she was only fourteen, but she taught in the first Sunday- 

189 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



school in the city. My father, a talented young physician, was in Macon 
practising medicine. She had a long attack of illness. He attended her. 
She recovered, and her attending physician won her love, and they were 
married — he thirty-eight, she seventeen. 

Up to this time life had been all sunshine, and the day grew brighter 
still. Her husband was pious, accomplished as a physician, and had a good 
practice. They had a home of their own, and a good family servant, and 
life was brightened by tlie coming of their first born. Then the shadows 
fell, the little boy died, her father died, the husband fell ill. An unwise en- 
trance into mercantile life, an unwise removal to a new land, and disaster 
coming to ventures, for it was in 1837, wben nearly all merchants failed, 
brought her into the deepest depths. It was then when I remember her 
first. The sweetness, the tenderness, the pra}'erful care of my mother in 
those earliest hours has gone with me to the present hour. We were in 
Oxford. Judge Longstreet, Bishop Andrew, Dr. Lane, Mrs. Judge Lamar, 
and people of that kind were her friends. There was no real want, but 
it was a life of trial. My father's practice was small, his income limited, and 
she had privations and cares that even now make my heart bleed, but she 
bravely struggled on. She taught her children ; she taught the village 
school. My father thought he saw an opening for a better practice, and went 
to Atlanta. Thither we moved. She taught the first select French school 
in the young city. She had the best girls under her tuition, and the aid she 
gave my father enabled him to pay all men their dues. Then there came what 
might have been a brighter day, and she left the schoolroom, but her work 
was done, and in full sight of Heaven she passed from our sight when she 
was thirty-nine years old. The best people in Georgia knew her and loved 
her, but only her children knew her. I have known many women, and some 
have been very dear to me, but my mother stands higher in my estimate than 
any woman I ever knew. She never saw the results of her work, but it 
abides. 

Geo. G. S.mith. 



190 



(CatHltVinC JluUng ^'OOmbs, tlie mother of Robert Toombs, was 

born in Virginia, January 15, 1789, and died in Wilkes County, Georgia, 
May II, 1848. Robert Toombs was a widower with one son five years of 
age when Catharine Huhng, at the age of nineteen, became his wife. She 
was devoted to her stepson Lawrence Catictt Toombs, and he loved her as 
an own mother. Catharine Toombs became the mother of four sons and 
one daughter. They lived on their plantation, on Beaverdam Creek, five 
miles from Washington. Robert Toombs, with his younger brother (iabriel. 
rode into Washington to school when they were little fellows, Gabriel riding 
back of his brother and holding on to his coat. Mr. Toombs every day after 
breakfast had his children brought to liim, and he played with them and 
talked with and learned to know them, and saw nothing more of them for 
the rest of the day. They ate at the nur.scry table. Necessarily these chil- 
dren fell more to the care and attention of their mother, who was untiring in 
love and affection. I imagine she had very little mirth or gladness in her 
nature. But her husband had enough of these traits for them both. The 
old daguerreotype of her represents a sweet-looking old lady, with black silk 
dress and lace collar; hands folded quietly in her lap; spectacles on her eyes 
(which were large and gray), that looked wide open and with a kind of 
firm patience in t'heir expression — it is not a sad look, but rather brave, with 
fortitude. She was a woman to whom people in trouble intuiti\cly turned, 
knowing they would find comfort, and she was a law unto herself. Being 
early left a widow, and not wishing to be separated from her boys during 
college life, she moved to Athens, Georgia, and stayed there while they were 
being educated. She idolized her daughter Sara Ann, who married Mr. 
Henry Pope, a gentleman of great charm of personality. .After the marriage 
of her boys Robert and Gabriel, she lived with Gabriel. Her son James 
accidentally shot himself while hunting in the woods near his plantation 
home. He was engaged to be married to a relative of his half-brother 
Lawrence, a Miss Catlett, of Virginia. 

Catharine Toombs was noted for refinement, godliness, and charity. 
She gave annually half of her income toward the maintenance and educa- 
tion of poor and orphan children. She was a woman of such spirituality that 
her influence always, even after death, was potently felt by her sons. Their 
pride was to deserve her approval. As late as 1899 Dr. Francis Willis of 
Richmond, Virginia, while on a visit to Washington, called to see the 
writer of this little sketch, and in the course of conversation he said: " I 
called on Mr. Gabriel Toombs this morning, and he told me a remarkable 
thing. Mr. Toombs said that he had never been in doubt as to the right 
course to pursue on any question of importance that he did not first pause, 
and ask himself, 'What would my mother advise? ' and invariably he followed 
the course he thought she would approve, even though it might not be his 
preference. Mr. Toombs," said Dr. Willis, " is eighty-six years of age, and T 
consider that he told me a remarkable and beautiful experience." 

191 



The Mothers «/■ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



What a wonderful influence that mother possessed ! A woman who 
died at the age of fifty-nine, yet was the guiding influence of a son of 
eighty-six. This son, Gabriel Toombs, hved to be eig*hty-nine years of age, 
but his mother was always with him. Robert Toombs' chiefest aim was to 
have his mother's approbation, and with what pride her loving heart must 
have glowed when she looked upon this brilliant, beautiful, and devoted 
son ! Her death was the immediate result of a broken heart. She could not 
live after the death of her idolized daughter, and without any apparent cause 
slie died — her doctors said " of a broken heart." 

The writer drove out to her grave yesterday, November 9th. She is 
buried near the old homestead, in a beautiful oak grove on a gentle slope. 
Rock walls enclose the ground, and ivy covers the ravages of time. The 
leaves were in their autumn hue, the air was balmy and sweet, and the 
repose that lies on every height lingered lovingly there where Catharine 
Toombs lies sleeping. 

K. T. C. 



193 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



J»itV<tH gUls guvdcc, the mother of Lieut-Gen. Wm. J. Hardee, was 

born on Cumberland Island, Georgia, 1777. 

Her father, Henry EIHs, was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of 
Georgia, in August, 1756. He had early distinguished himself as a student 
of the natural sciences, and by his enthusiasm for geographical discoveries, 
and was in 1746 selected by a committee of Parliament to find a new passage 
to the Pacific. He published a relation of his voyage and discoveries wliich 
was translated into German, French, and Dutch. The merit of the per- 
formance and the value of the service to the cause of science being so great, 
he was in 1749 elected a p-ellow of the Royal Society. The government abso 
rewarded his services by appointing him deputy commissary general. 
Through the influence of his godfather, the Earl of Halifax, he received the 
nomination for the vacant government of Georgia, and was confirmed by 
the king in 1756. The " Gazette " of the day noticing the appointment adds, 
" Such an active, sen.sible, honest man is much wanted." The ailministration 
of Ellis was highly beneficial to Georgia. By nothing was his ability more 
tested than by his management of Indian afifairs. 

Governor Ellis's health being impaired, he resigned and returned to 
England, and was appointed Governor of Nova Scotia. Resigning this he lo- 
cated at Naples, pursuing his favorite maritime researches imtil he died in 
1806. 

During Governor Ellis's residence in Georgia, he had a liomc on Cum- 
berland Island, and here in 1777 Sarah Ellis was born. Much of her young 
life was passed on this beautiful sea-girt island, wintering in Savannah. 
When seventeen years of age Sarah Ellis was married to Maj. John Hardee, 
and at their home " Rural Felicity," in Camden County, Georgia, their seven 
children were born : Thomas, Sarah, Noble, Carrie, Washington, and William 
Joseph; of these Thomas rose to distinction as a physician; Noble, a well- 
known and successful cotton merchant, of Savannah, Georgia; and William 
Josepili. the youngest, born 181 8, entered the United States army as second 
lieutenant in 1838, in the class with General Beauregard. His advancement 
was so rapid that the Secretary of War sent him to the military school at 
St. Maur, France. He returned to America, and was one of the officers 
who crossed the Rio Grande with General Taylor in 1846. For gallantry 
on the field he was made brevet-major in 1847; was appointed to commander 
of cadets at West Point, in 1855, with rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1861 
he resigned liis commission in the United States army to enter the Confed- 
erate army as brigadier-general and was soon promoted to major-general. 

General Hardee was in command of the Tliird Army Corps at Shiloh in 
1862; was at Perryville, and distinguished himself at Murfrcesboro and Chat- 
tanooga, and was made lieutenant-general. He surrendered to Sherman with 
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, at Durham. North Carolina, 1865. Gen. Hardee 
died November 6, 1873. As a tactician he is widely known, his " Hardee's 
Tactics " having been used in the United States army. 
13 '93 



The Mothers of 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 

"^^ The capable mother did not live to enjoy her son's greatest honors — 

only the glowing promise of his early career. With quiet surroundings she 
hved her peaceful life, a devoted Christian and consistent member of the 
Presbyterian Church. Her position as the wife of a planter and the mother 
of a large family, developed the strong as well as the gentle traits of her char- 
acter. A devoted wife and affectionate mother, a kind mistress, over her 
children and slaves she exercised a watchful care, and often, on her nightly 
rounds, she would find her favorite child, William Joseph, by the light of a 
candle poring over his books in the late hours of the night. 

Sarah Ellis and her husband lived their lives, died, and were buried at 
their old homestead, " Rural Felicity." Her tombstone inscribes the date of 
her death 1847, so she lived to the good old age of seventy- two. 



194 



The Mothers 0/ 

Some 

Distinguished 

Georgians 



J>aVilU 21. ^CVVCU, mother of Gov. Joseph M. Terrell. 

" The Mother in her office holds the key 
Of the soul; and she it is who stamps the coin 
Of character, and makes the being who would be a savage, 
But for her gentle care, a noble man." 

The influence exerted by the mother in moulding the character, and 
fixing the destiny of the son, can neVer be fully, accurately estimated. It 
was the training of Hannah, the peerless mother of Israel, that gave to the 
Hebrews their wisest judge and most conservative leader, in the prophet 
Samuel. But for the early lessons instilled in the mind of the youthful 
Moses, by his mother, Jocabed, he might have preferred the learning and 
riches of Egypt to the dangerous task of braving Pharaoh's wrath, and 
becoming the leader of God's chosen people through the Ked Sea, and the 
wilderness and deserts of Arabia, to the promised Canaan. Coriolanus, 
when all efforts had failed, was persuaded by his mother to withdraw his 
victorious legions from the gates of Rome, and lost his life at the hands of 
his infuriated soldiers. 

" Oh, wondrous power ! how little understood, 
Entrusted to the mother's hand alone. 
To fashion genius, form the soul for good, 
Inspire a West, or train a Washington." 

Such a mother was Mrs. Sarah R. Terrell, the mother of Gov. Joseph 
M. Terrell. Like Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, she regarded her 
five manly boys, and her lovely daughter, as her most precious jewels, and 
cherished them accordingly. Her father, Dr. J. W. Anthony, was a skilled 
and well-beloved physician, prominent in his church, and leader among his 
fellow men. He belonged to the family of that name in Eastern Georgia, 
distinguished in medical annals and successful practice. Her mother, Mar- 
tha Render, was descended from the best people in Wilkes Co. A good 
neighbor and devoted Christian, her daughter enjoyed the finest training 
possible to fit her for the high duties of wife and mother. To this training 
was added the highest culture and education oljtainable from the best schools 
of the day. She was a graduate of the Southern Female College, at La 
Grange, when the gifted Bacon was at its head. Leaving college a beautiful, 
accomplished, and amiable young lady, she became the light and life of 
every social circle, so that when Dr. J. E. G. Terell won her heart and hand 
he was the envy of many a gallant suitor. 

She was well fitted to adorn the happy home which she and her noble 
husband combined to make the abode of love, of joy, of peace, and plenty. 
The duties of an active and extensive practice calling the father from home 
much of the time, to Mrs. Terrell was left the task of training the young 

»95 



7*,^^ Mothers (?/ 
Some 

Distinguished 
Georgians 



minds of her sprightly, handsome boys. Though full of life, and in every- 
day contact with the boys, good and bad, in a small country village, her 
sons were never charged with any of the youthful, thoughtless improprieties 
that occurred in the town. At school they were neatly attired, most exem- 
plary in deportment, and first in all their classes. At church and Sunday- 
school their places were never vacant, and they never showed by irreverent 
conduct a forgetfulness that they were in God's house. She made home 
so pleasant, so attractive, that to her children it was the most delightful 
place on earth; and her boys were not to be seen on the streets at unseemly 
hours. 

Mrs. Terrell was .gifted with the rare talent of impressing her own 
individuality and admirable traits of character upon the children that blessed 
her home. Her firmness was devoid of harshness, and her rebukes always 
given in love. Good books were put in the hands of her loved ones and 
bad ones kept away. 

It is no wonder that with such care and training all her sons have 
grown to be men conspicuous for ability and usefulness. In the ranks of 
medicine and law — two are physicians and two are members of the legal pro- 
fession — and active business life, they achieved notable success. Her only 
daughter, Mrs. Hines Holt, of Columbus, is a most admirable, accomplished 
and Christian lady. 

It was once said that the mother of Washington lived anew in the noble 
life and deeds of her illustrious son. So are the rare virtues and graces of 
Mrs. Terrell reproduced in the attainments and records of her children. 

Perhaps the most fitting tribute that could be paid this good mother 
is the epitaph that Governor Terrell liad placed upon the beautiful shaft 
erected by the children over the remains of the precious mother in the 
village cemetery at Greenville. It reads as follows : 

" Sarah Rebecca Terrell, eldest daughter of Dr. Joseph W. and Martha 
Render Anthony, 

Born in Wilkes County, Georgia, August 13, 1832, 

Joined Baptist Church in Greenville in 1853. Married Dr. J. E. G. 
Terrell, April 2, 1856. 

Died December 9, 1895." 

" In memory of our devoted mother. She lived the life of the righteous, 
and died,in the full triumphs of the Christian's faith. She ruled wisely and 
well in her household; moulding and shaping the characters of her loved 
ones so as to render them useful here, and the recipients of everlasting 
happiness in the world to come. Adorned witli the graces of a true believer, 
she possessed the virtues that the wise man valued as beyond the price of 
rubies. 

" Her love blessed her children while she lived and will ever remain a 
precious legacy." ^ 

fiD-274: ■" 



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